Honor Amongst Thieves
by Deplora
Summary: [DISCONTINUED][AU]Yuffie Kisaragi, a teenager who has spent most of her life on the streets, stealing to get by. Squall Leonhart, a man who just wanted his wallet back. How will the fates throw these two together?
1. Chapter One: Vain Pursuit

_Author's Note: Okay, this idea has been floating around in my head since about March and I just really started brainstorming on it the other night. And I was going to put it off until after "Blind Instinct" is finished, but this really cool opening scene popped into my head and I had to start it. So, somebody please slap some sense into me. And it probably won't be updated that often until after I get "Blind Instinct" finished._

_Summary: Alternate Universe. Yuffie Kisaragi, a teenager who has spent most of her life on the streets, stealing to get by. Squall Leonhart, a man who just wanted his wallet back. How will the fates throw these two together?_

_Maybe a slightly dark fic. I dunno yet. We'll just have to see. So, for now, I'll have the rating at PG-13, but, if at any time you feel that it should be rated higher, tell me and I'll change the rating._

_Yeah, I suck at summaries. Sorry._

_[Disclaimer: Okay, time for the standard disclaimer. I warn you, it will change throughout the story. Kingdom Hearts and all characters therein are owned by both Disney and SquareEnix. I am making no money whatsoever from this story.]_

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_HONOR AMONGST THIEVES _

_Chapter One: Vain Pursuit _

Rain. She always had hated the rain from almost as far back as she could remember. Maybe her hatred of the rain began thirteen years ago. Yes, that was probably the event that triggered her loathing of the life giving drops. For it had been raining the day her mother had finally succumbed to the disease that had been threatening her life for five years. Of course, no one else believed that domestic abuse was a disease. Only Yuffie. Her mother had tried leaving the man from the time her tiny daughter had been born, only to come crawling back each time because she had believed his endless lies. The lies he always fed her. There was the standard, "I promise, Amaya, I'll change this time." And then the ever popular, "Just give me one more chance, Amaya." And then there was the one lie that was permanently burned into Yuffie's head. The one lie that turned out to be the last lie she would ever hear from her father. "I only bought the gun for protection, Amaya. You know that I would never use it."

Shivering, the now seventeen year old Yuffie stood beneath the awning of the small pawn shop located in the downtown area of the thriving metropolis. She loathed this city with a passion but she knew deep down inside she would never be able to leave it. This was the only place where she could make her living doing the only thing she knew how. Pushing her short, choppy, and lank ebony bangs out of her face, she fingered the cash in her other hand, silently adding it to the little bit she had stashed away. Math seemed to be the only school subject she had ever found a use for. Albeit, her schooling was limited.

"Eighteen dollars," she muttered disgustedly as she rolled the three five-dollar and three one-dollar bills together and shoved them into the side pocket of her tattered khaki shorts. "Eighteen lousy dollars for that damn ring. And I thought the piece of shit would be worth at least fifty." Sighing, she realized that even with the thirteen she had in her other pocket it would not be enough. But, then again, she never had enough. Such was the way things went when you lived on the streets.

She turned as she heard the bell over the pawn shop door behind her ring only to find the large, burly owner glaring at her. "Look, girlie, if you don't have any business here, don't be standing here. You're scaring away my customers," he said in a low voice, putting a fake smile on his round, ruddy face as a potential patron walked past. As soon as the man had passed, the owner turned back to Yuffie, glaring. "What are you still doing here? Now scram!"

"Bastard," she mumbled under her breath as she took a step out from under the awning and into the rain. Looking up, she saw the dark torrents of water falling relentlessly from the night sky, soaking her almost instantly to the bone. Her thin, tattered clothes did little to keep the moisture out and the cool, night air, considerably chillier because of the rain, soon caused her shivering to increase drastically.

With water running through her hair and down her face, she crossed her arms protectively over her chest and took off across the street, being narrowly missed by the approaching and seemingly never ceasing traffic of the city. She ignored the angrily honking horns and stepped onto the opposite sidewalk, thankful for the protection this block length awning provided from the rain.

Falling into the small crowd that had formed, she busily worked her way through them to start on her walk home, picking a few pockets as she went. A girl had to get by somehow, she had always reasoned, knowing that there wasn't much choice for someone like her, a street rat as she had been branded by countless people. Of course, she had plans for when she finally got enough money together.

She reached into her last pocket of the evening and pulled out the black leather wallet, slipping it into her own pocket with the other items she had stolen before someone noticed her holding onto it. The last thing she needed was a rain-soaked chase through the streets. She had no doubt that she could lose any pursuers within the maze of alleys the city provided, but she was simply too tired to want to go through the effort.

Feeling herself being watched, she quickly looked up and noticed deep stormy blue eyes with a jagged scar running between them glaring at her as the owner of said eyes tentatively reached into his back pocket. "Busted," she muttered under her breath as she began sprinting at top speed and hoped to put enough distance between them that she would be able to lose him quickly.

"Hey, get back here!" the man called in a deep baritone, immediately starting after her and pushing through the crowds.

Yuffie spared a quick glance over her shoulder to see that he was gaining on her, his legs pumping seemingly effortlessly. Obviously, he worked out, not the typical desk jockey she had taken him for. "Perfect," she panted, increasing her pace and turning sharply to the right to cut through the alley.

The man closely followed her into the alley, believing he had her cornered as he saw the high fence at the end of the alley. He bent over, his hands resting on his upper legs as he panted slightly. "Now, give me back my wallet and I won't turn you into the cops," he finally said as he caught his breath, standing up straight and brushing the long locks of his wet hair out of his eyes.

Deciding it might be in her best interest to play along for the moment to catch him off guard, Yuffie looked at the ground in a sign of submission and put on her most repentant face. Yes, she had spent countless hours in front of department store windows practicing this face in the reflection. "I'm sorry, mister," she muttered softly, her head still lowered but peaking through her dark bangs to watch him. "But, this is the only way for me to get by. And what with my parents and five little brothers all being sick, it's up to me to get enough money together to pay for food." She briefly wondered if she was laying it on too thick, but quickly dismissed that thought as she saw a flicker of sympathy cross his face.

As she watched, she could see his resolve slowly melting and he began to walk slowly down the alley towards her. "Look, just give me the wallet. There's nothing in there, anyways," he said, this time a little more gently than he had previously. He reached his hand out slowly, as though she were some strange dog that might bite at any moment.

Her head shot up, a large grin coming across her face as she darted to the left and jumped on top of a large dumpster and then gracefully leaped onto the edge of the fence. "You, my good friend, have been duped by the Great Ninja Yuffie. Consider it a compliment," she called from her position before bounding to the other side of the fence and leaving him alone in the alley.

Running, she could have sworn she heard the sound of something hitting the dumpster and then a loud string of curses. "They're all the same," she muttered as she slowed to a trot and glanced over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed. "Every damn one of them."

A few quick turns to the left soon brought her to an abandoned warehouse, the one place she had actually lived for more than a month at a time since her mother had died. The ninja wearily slipped through the broken window on the building's side and slowly climbed up the stairs to the attic where she kept her few belongings. The attic was the only place she truly felt safe.

A small overturned wooden crate served as a makeshift table and she immediately dumped the contents of her pockets onto it. Sorting through the items she had procured during her evening run, she set the wallets aside. She always did them last, telling herself she was saving the best for last. But it was a lie. The wallets rarely had more than twenty in cash and the credit cards were virtually useless to her unless she sold them, something she had yet to resort to. Usually, she would break the cards up and throw them in her trash pile. Shaking her head, she knew people would never believe she did that. After all, she was a thief. Little did most people know, but some thieves still had honor.

Honor. She nearly scoffed at the word. It was her supposed honor that kept her living on the streets. In all her time as a thief, she had never stolen from anyone who looked as though they couldn't afford to lose a little cash. It was something she could never bring herself to do. She didn't know where her honor came from but she silently cursed whatever gods had bestowed it upon her. She dearly wished to be like the other thieves she knew, those who had no remorse and were able to live better than she ever could with her honor.

Going back to the task at hand, she realized that most of the jewelry she had taken was worthless, most of it cheap imitations of the real thing. That only left the wallets. And it was just a small pile of wallets. She had only managed to pick up three before that man had discovered his was missing. Remembering his expression of shock when she had jumped onto the fence, she laughed softly. It was something she would have to remember for when she was feeling lower than usual.

She decided to save his wallet for last, grabbing a light tan colored one and dumping its contents onto the crate. Sighing, she realized the man she had taken this from was only carrying around a couple dollars. The rest of his wallet was full of credit cards, receipts, and business cards. She set the credit cards aside to be disposed of before reaching for the next one. This one was even less empty than the previous as it had no money, one credit card, a driver's license, and a slip of paper with a phone number. Biting her lip, she tossed the wallet over her shoulder in disgust and put her head in her hands. Tonight's salary was even less than she had hoped for.

But, there was still one wallet left. Picking up the faded black leather wallet, she briefly wondered why the man chasing her was so adamant about getting it back if it indeed had nothing in it like he said. "He must've been lying, that son of a bitch," she whispered softly as she greedily unfolded the wallet and expected to find it full of cash. She dropped her head to the crate with a loud 'thud' when she realized that there was no cash in the wallet. Only his driver's license, two credit cards, and a few pictures.

Bored, she began to pick through the faded photos, noticing that nearly all of them had the same two people in them. One in particular sparked her interest. The owner of the wallet was sitting in a plush recliner with a beautiful young woman resting in his lap and leaning against his chest. Another one, of the same woman, had her standing in the sunlight, a soft smile on her face and one hand pushing back her ebony hair, the brown streaks running through it matching her eyes perfectly.

"So this is why he wanted the wallet back?" Yuffie asked herself, glancing over a few more of the pictures. "Just for these pictures?" Slipping them back into the wallet, she pulled out the driver's license and stared at his picture, wondering how he had gotten that scar on his face. "His wife probably threw something at his head when he came home drunk one night," she said aloud, laughing as she got the mental image of the gentle looking woman in the pictures maliciously throwing dishes across the room at her husband.

"Okay, Scar, let's see what your name is." Yuffie momentarily wondered why she was so curious about this man. Normally, she would never bother looking at the personal items in a wallet she had stolen. It put a face with one of her victims and usually made her guilt-ridden. But, something about this man drew her in. Something made her curious. She couldn't explain it. Reading his name aloud, she frowned. "Squall Leonhart? What kind of parents would name their kid 'Squall?'"

Giving up on the enigma that was this Squall Leonhart, she put all his stuff back into the wallet and closed it. Unlike with most other wallets, she found herself unable to throw this one away. Maybe it was because she was intrigued by how much these pictures apparently meant to him. Or maybe she was just getting sentimental as she grew older. She didn't know. Nor did she care.

She stood up slowly, finding herself still shivering slightly from her wet attire. Crossing the room, she pulled out the heavy sweatshirt she had found only a month before and slipped it over her head. It had indeed been a lucky day when she had come across this shirt. Very rarely did she ever find anything worth keeping in the local dumpsters. She usually had to rely upon stealing things from unattended clotheslines, which were few and far between in the city.

Her eyes drooping as fatigue hit her, she lay down upon the pallet she had made from anything soft she could find and pulled the tattered blanket around her. Ignoring her rumbling stomach with practiced ease, she soon found herself in her nightmarish world of slumber. Most people had the luxury of having good dreams. But not Yuffie. In her dreams, she always relived her past. More specifically, she always watched her mother die again and was never able to save her.

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_Author's Note: Okay, so tell me what you think. It's different from anything else I've written, no? Well, anyways, I'm gonna post it and let you guys' reactions to it tell me whether I should continue or not. Oh, don't expect it to be updated that often until I finish with Blind Instinct. After that, this will become my main focus._


	2. Chapter Two: Dampened Spirits

_Author's Note: I am in complete and utter shock. I mean, 24 reviews for one chapter?! I'm so glad the story was that well received. I never dreamed it would be. I LOVE YOU, GUYS!!!_ __

_By the by, I'm taking artistic license with Godo Kisaragi and probably making him out of character. Please don't kill me._

_[Disclaimer: No, I do not own the characters portrayed within this story unless they are unusually one dimensional, which would signal them as being my original characters. My lovely Squall is still owned and probably will be forever owned by Square. The same goes for Yuffie, who I must say is my absolute favorite female video game character of all time.]_

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_Chapter Two: Dampened Spirits_

_ Peaking around the doorway of her parents' bedroom in their small house, a four year old Yuffie watched as her mother and father fought once again. Even though it was a regular occurrence in their household_, _the child couldn't help but realize that it wasn't right. Her friend's parents never fought like this. As her father's voice rose in anger, she clutched the small teddy bear more tightly in her arms._

_ "Amaya, I refuse to allow you to leave again," Godo Kisaragi bellowed, swaying slightly as he stood in front of the bedroom doorway with his arms crossed. He glared angrily at his wife, who was busily throwing her clothing into a suitcase where she had already placed most of her daughter's clothing. Godo drunkenly stumbled across the room and grabbed his wife by her shoulders and spun her around. "Are you listening to me, Amaya?!"_

_ Amaya roughly pushed her husband's hands off her shoulder and continued to pack her suitcase. Yuffie noticed the large purple bruise already forming around her right eye from the fight that had occurred earlier in the day. "Godo, you are drunk. You promised me you wouldn't do this again. Yuffie and I are leaving," she said rather calmly, her tone low and even. As she bent over to pick up the suitcase, her waist length black hair cascaded around her face where she hastily brushed it to the side. "Now, move Godo."_

_ In slow motion it seemed, Yuffie watched in terror as her father stalked to the closet and threw open the door. Reaching in, he pulled out the pistol and aimed it at his wife. "Amaya, I'm telling you one more time to unpack that suitcase and get this crazy idea out of your fool head. You can't leave me. I will not allow it."_

_ Turning her back on her husband, the woman calmly walked to the door and took one step out into the hallway. That one step cost her life as Godo cocked the gun and pulled the trigger. As the gunshot rang out, Yuffie cried out while she watched her mother fall to the floor, her eyes already glazed over and lifeless._

Jolting awake, Yuffie sat up on her makeshift bed and drew her knees up so she could wrap her arms tightly around her legs. She gently rocked back and forth in the bed as the memory of her mother's death replayed over and over in her mind. Beginning to shiver, she realized that not only was she covered in the sweat that normally accompanied her nightmares but also that her clothing was still soaked from the rain earlier. A drop of water falling on top of her head caused her to look up and grimace when she realized that the roof was beginning to leak.

"Perfect," she muttered, slowly standing up and dragging her pallet across the dusty floor to the other side of the room. This was the fourth leak in the past week her 'home' had developed and if they kept showing up, she knew she would have to find another place to stay.

Climbing back onto the bed, she dug around in her various threadbare blankets until she found what she was looking for: an old bedraggled teddy bear, nearly falling apart at the seams. Its once fluffy brown fur had become a flat, matted mess and it stared lifelessly at its owner through one lone button eye that was barely hanging on by a mere thread. Yuffie hugged the bear to her chest and lay down upon her bed, silent tears welling up in her eyes before spilling their dams and streaming down her pale cheeks. "Goodnight, Moosh," she whispered to the bear, ignoring the chiding voice in the back of her mind that told her she was too old for stuffed bears. Another violent shiver racked her frame and she curled herself into a fetal position, pulling the blankets tighter around herself and praying to whatever gods would listen for a dreamless sleep for once.

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Covering her mouth as another hacking cough erupted from her lungs, Yuffie stumbled down the crowded sidewalk. Her feverish eyes began to burn and she rubbed them with the sleeve of her once white sweatshirt, struggling not to fall as she swayed to the left. As she leaned into something, she felt rough hands shove her away and heard a disgusted voice telling her to watch where she was going. Closing her eyes momentarily, she regained her balance and began her trek down the block once more, ignoring the prickling feeling in her skin. It felt as though the hairs on her arms and legs had turned into tiny needles and were simultaneously digging their way into her flesh.

Even with the sun glaring down upon her back, shivers still raced through her body. And while those around her were shedding their jackets in the unseasonably warm October weather, Yuffie wrapped her sweatshirt around her even tighter and wished she had been able to find a pair of pants instead of the short shorts she wore. Her head lowered and nearly buried in the collar of her shirt, she wished she could just curl up in her bed and try to sleep. But, given the fact that she had been unable to find a victim that met her standards since a few nights before and the fact that she had splurged this morning when she bought that cup of coffee from the gas station, she really needed to grab at least one wallet today.

Lifting her head, she spotted a suitable victim. The man wore a pinstriped blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and carried his designer jacket on his left arm. On his right wrist, Yuffie spotted a gleaming gold watch that signified, in her mind, that he would be able to spare a little cash. Casually strolling up to him, she carefully reached into his back pocket and pulled out the leather wallet only to sneeze right as she was placing it into her own pocket.

The man turned, giving her a disgusted sneer that turned to an enraged scowl as he eyed his wallet still in her hand. "Shit," Yuffie muttered quickly before taking a deep breath in her aching lungs and began to run down the street. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed the man was quickly gaining on her and she silently cursed the illness that had caused her to become so weak. Her legs ached more with each stride and her stomach began to churn, nearly causing her to stop and vomit right then. But, choking down on the bile rising in her throat, she forced herself to go on.

She turned to the left and stopped suddenly, blinking when she realized that this was the same alley where she had escaped the scarred man only a few nights before. Gasping for air, she turned to see her most recent victim confidently striding up the alley, throwing his jacket to the side where it landed atop a few wooden crates. Yuffie slowly backed up to the end of the alley, clutching her violently churning stomach while she silently calculated her best course of action. One look at this man's face told her that any lies she could come up with would be proved useless.

Finding her back pressed against the back fence, she began to slide across to the dumpster, planning on escaping like she had earlier. Just as she was about to jump, a sudden wave of dizziness hit her and caused her to fall back against the fence and sink to the ground, her eyes clenched shut.

"Well, well," the man began, his slick voice seeming to drip oil as he spoke. "Looks like you've no where to go, bitch." He continued to steadily approach her, his bright green eyes narrowing as he watched her squirm under his gaze.

Yuffie reached into the pocket where she had stuffed his wallet and shakily held out her hand to give it back to him. "Please don't turn me into the cops, mister," she pleaded, her head and stomach ganging up on her and causing her vision to swim. When she realized he wasn't going to take his wallet back, she scooted over to where she was in the narrow space between the dumpster and the fence.

Eyeing her, the man licked his lips and casually pushed her hand holding the wallet away from him. "Since you're so intent on getting my money, perhaps you should do something to earn it," he said lecherously, beginning to unbuckle his belt. "And then I won't turn you into the cops."

Her eyes widening in shock and fear, Yuffie lurched to her feet and frantically began trying to climb atop the dumpster. Hundreds of thoughts flew through her head, most of them involving her being raped in broad daylight in this crowded city and no one coming to save her. After all, she was only a street rat, vermin, worthless, like she had been told her whole life. And even if the man killed her after he had his way with her, no one would care. It would only be one less person in this already overcrowded metropolis.

A hand grasped her calf just as she reached the top of the dumpster and dragged her back down to the ground. A scream pierced the air and she looked around in shock, only realizing it was her own scream when her victim-turned-assailant clamped his hand down over her mouth. "Now, listen, bitch," he spat at her, his hand on her mouth pushing down so hard that her teeth cut into her lips. "We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. Your choice."

Her indigo eyes wide with fright darted around the alley, looking for anything to help her. And somewhere in the back of her mind, she was silently telling herself to just give in. She had always known it would come to this one of these days. It was just a matter of time until she was caught and forced into it.

Bile began rising in her throat, both from her illness and the thought of what was about to happen to her. Hearing her beginning to choke, the man removed his hand from her mouth and then immediately started cursing as she vomited on his blue pinstriped shirt. "You bitch!" he bellowed, raising his hand to slap her.

In fear, Yuffie cringed, expecting the blow to come but never feeling it. Instead, she heard the loud 'smack' as something else was struck and her assailant's loud groan of pain. Opening her eyes, she saw the man she recognized as Squall Leonhart from his driver's license leaning over her now unconscious attacker.

Too weak to run, Yuffie shakily sank to the ground, her eyes closed tightly as she awaited the attack she was sure to come from her rescuer. After all, she had robbed him and lied to him only a few nights before. He had probably only saved her so he could have the pleasure of raping her himself. A dark shadow fell over her and she wearily opened her eyes, staring up into his own stormy blue ones. "Please," she whispered, unable to get her voice to work as another coughing fit set in.

Squall kneeled down in front of her, eyeing the vomit present on her shirt and on the ground with disgust. Taking his eyes off of that, he finally got a good look at her and recognized her as the girl who had taken his wallet a few nights before. "Yuffie, right?" he asked, sighing as he remembered her parting words as she jumped this very fence.

Yuffie mutely nodded, slowly pushing herself to her feet and using the wall behind her to help steady herself. "I... I... still have your wallet," she stammered, pushing herself off the wall and gently pushing past him. "Follow me and I'll give it back." Wrapping her arms tightly around herself as another shivering fit set in, she looked over her shoulder to see if he was following her. Indeed he was. In fact, he was watching her with hawk eyes it seemed to make sure she wasn't going to try to escape again.

Quickening his pace, Squall began to walk beside her, his strides matching hers. "What happened back there?" he finally inquired, giving her a questioning glance as they passed through the crowds of people, who were, no doubt, on their lunch breaks.

"Oh, _that_." She took a deep breath, ignoring the wheezing sound her lungs made as she did so. "I happened to pick the pocket of the wrong person this time," she stated nonchalantly, lowering her gaze to the ground. "I seem to be losing my touch." Her stomach turned against her, causing her to pause mid-step and try to keep the nausea down to minimum. She ignored the few disgusted glares she was receiving from passersby who noticed her vomit stained shirt. She was used to glares like that.

"Maybe you should get a new profession then," her companion of the moment suggested sarcastically, stopping to wait for her to continue on their trek. He leaned against the wall of the building behind him with his arms crossed and his head slightly lowered so that his russet bangs fell across his eyes as he glared at her.

Yuffie bit her lip, wincing when she accidentally bit down on a place where her teeth had cut it just moments before. "Look," she said calmly. "You don't know me. You don't know what happened to me. You don't care what will happen to me. So let's just go get your wallet so you can get back to your life and I can get back to mine." She began stomping off, not waiting for him to join her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him trot up to her side and she briefly wondered what use a short sleeved leather jacket like the one he wore would have. In the winter, it wouldn't keep out the chill and in the summer, it would only add to one's discomfort. Shaking her head, she chased the thought out of her head and began to concentrate of more important things, like how she was going to get over this cold that seemed to have settled in her body.

She sniffled loudly as her nose began to run and then groaned as it started to stop up, forcing her to begin breathing through her mouth. Why was it that colds seemed to just jump you all at once? One minute, you can be breathing fine and the next, it feels like you have a brick wall blocking your nasal passages. "You're sick, aren't you?" the man beside her asked.

"Gee, what gave it away?" she asked sarcastically, her voice coming out slightly nasal.

"Maybe you should see a doctor about it."

She turned to glare at him, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Look, genius, I don't need to see the doctor. I'll be fine in a couple of days." Bringing her eyes back to what lay before her, she muttered, "besides, what would I pay him with? I don't think they'll accept IOU's."

They walked in silence the rest of the way to her warehouse, and Squall eyed her curiously as she began to crawl through broken window that served as her door. He continued to stare until she finally beckoned him in. Carefully avoiding the broken glass, he managed to make it through the opening without tearing either his clothes or his skin only to find himself inside a dusty room. Curling his lip in disgust, he followed her up the stairs as she shakily climbed them, pausing as she coughed a few times.

Finally reaching the attic, Yuffie gestured over to her makeshift table where his wallet still lay. "Everything's still inside it." She watched in slight amusement as he obviously didn't believe her and began to flip through the few things which it contained. Seeing his satisfied smirk as he placed it into his back pocket, she quickly sat down upon her bed as a wave of dizziness swept over her. "Now, I hope you don't mind me not escorting you out, but I'm feeling a little dizzy and I don't think I can make the stairs again."

Squall stepped over to her and placed a hand flat against her forehead. "You're burning up," he hissed, taking a closer look at her feverish eyes. "You really should get to the doctor or a hospital or something."

"I told you before, I don't need to see the doctor and there is no way in hell I'm going to the hospital," she muttered tiredly, clenching her eyes shut as the dizziness grew and was soon joined by a pounding headache. Her eyes jerked open when she felt arms go around her and pick her up. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm taking you to the hospital. You're sick."

Kicking and screaming with all her might, Yuffie tried to get out of his grasp, screaming incoherently about hospitals killing people like her. The headache in the back of her head grew painfully until, thankfully, she blacked out and fell limply in his arms.

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_Author's Note: Okay, there it is. So, did it live up to your expectations? I hope so. I would be really shattered if you guys didn't like it. Anyways, drop me a review please._


	3. Chapter Three: Refused Offerings

_Author's Note: Okay, here we go. I am already starting on another chapter of this story because I am stuck as to where I should start the chapter in my other story. :::sigh::: And I pretty much know exactly what's going to happen in this chapter of this story. Did that make any sense or am I just rambling away?_

_[Disclaimer: Let's see. So far, I own Amaya, the man who tried to rape Yuffums, and the pawn shop owner. Not a very good collection of characters on my part, is it? Now if only I could get a hold of Squall...]_

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_Chapter Three: Refused Offerings_

Warmth. That was the first thing Yuffie felt as she slowly began to wake up. And then the aroma of chicken soup assaulted her senses, sending her back nearly fourteen years to the time she had had the chicken pox and her mother fed her chicken noodle soup while putting socks on her daughter's hands to keep her from scratching. Smiling, Yuffie snuggled deeper into the fuzzy blanket before her other senses kicked in and she realized her mother was dead.

Bolting upright, she placed a hand across her forehead as a wave of dizziness crashed down on her from sitting up too quickly. So, closing her eyes, she tried to think about what had happened and where she was. The last thing she remembered was being in her warehouse and the man she knew as Squall Leonhart trying to take her to the hospital.

She slowly opened her eyes, squinting as the lights in the room hurt her feverish eyes and looked around. She found herself on one of those corner sofas she had seen in furniture store windows and in a rather large room decorated in different shades of blue and dark cherry wood antique furniture. On the coffee table in front of her, her eyes fell upon what appeared to be a black and white fur hat. However, as she stared at it, it slowly began to uncurl and reveal itself to be a fluffy cat, who simply stretched, stared at her, and then sauntered off.

"That wasn't a hat," she muttered under her breath as she watched the black and white cat pick up its pace and trot down the hall after giving her hateful glare. Feeling her stomach begin to twist into knots, Yuffie began to lay back down upon the couch only to find another large black and white cat sitting on its haunches with its ears pressed flat against its skull and a low growl emitting from its throat. "Uh.. nice kitty..." she whispered, beginning to edge away from the irate feline.

Just as the cat was about to leap at her, her rescuer walked into the room shirtless and grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck. "Sydney can be a real monster sometimes," he apologized as he carried the cat down the hall and apparently shut it into a room as Yuffie heard a door close. Squall came back into the living room, this time with a shirt on that he was hastily buttoning. "So, you're awake now?"

"Yeah, I'm awake... I think..." Yuffie mumbled as she watched him finish buttoning his shirt and straightening the collar. Remembering reading his age on his driver's license, she raised her eyebrows in slight shock. _For twenty-six, he looks good... he looks good for twenty-one...,_ she silently mused, finally averting her eyes and staring at the edge of the green blanket she was wrapped in. "So, where am I?"

Squall momentarily gave her a bemused look, running his hands through his slightly damp hair and making Yuffie believe he had just gotten out of the shower when she woke up. "My apartment," he finally answered, sitting down on the small sofa across from her.

"Okay... _why_ am I here?" she asked, covering her mouth as a hacking coughing fit came over her. That finally passed, she looked at with him with slightly watery eyes and awaited his answer. She noticed her stomach had begun churning again in just the short time she had been awake and it was threatening to spew all its contents across his floor. So, groaning a little, she lay back down on the couch and lightly placed an arm across her stomach.

"Because you wouldn't let me take you to the doctor or to the hospital. I couldn't just leave you out there. You're sick," he explained, rising to his feet and leaving the room. Yuffie followed him with her eyes and watched him what appeared to be a kitchen. She could just barely make out the stainless steel refrigerator from her position.

Squall emerged a few moments later carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming hot something on it and a small mug of steaming hot something else. Yuffie couldn't tell what it was, as she was still lying down on the couch, but she could see the curling tendrils of steam rising in the air and the aromas emanating from them were tantalizing her senses. Turning her head to the side so she could get a better look, she watched him set the tray down upon the coffee table and walk across the room, only to come back with a wooden TV tray. "Here, you need to try and eat something," he muttered, setting the stand up and placing the bowl and mug upon it, soon followed by an ornate spoon and cloth napkin.

Sitting up slowly so her dizziness wouldn't return, Yuffie scooted to the edge of the sofa and looked down at the tray. Her eyes first fell upon the bowl of soup, so picking up the spoon, she took a few slow bites, hoping her stomach wouldn't revolt on her. After the first few bites, she paused, then hesitantly reached for the mug of what appeared to be tea and took a sip. "I didn't know canned soup could taste so good," she said after a few more bites.

While she had been busy with her own soup, her host had gone back to the kitchen and returned with his own bowl of soup that he ate as he sat across from her and watched as she finished off hers. "It isn't from a can. It's homemade," he explained, rising to take her empty bowl and mug back to the kitchen.

"You made this?" she asked incredulously, her stomach feeling better now that it had something in it and her sinuses beginning to clear from the steam that had wafted to her nostrils. She sneezed suddenly and found Squall passing a box of tissues over to her. "Thanks," she mumbled, in shock that not only someone had brought her in, but was also taking the time to feed her.

Nodding, he couldn't help but show some pride in his culinary skills and he reveled in the fact that people enjoyed his cooking. He watched as she continued to sneeze for a few minutes and then begin sniffling. "A hot bath will help clear your head, you know," he said, standing up from the couch and beginning to walk down the hall. Looking back, he noticed she was still sitting on the couch. "Come on. I'll find you some clean clothes to wear and show you were the bathroom is."

"Okay... I guess..." she muttered, slowly rising to her feet and unwrapping herself from the blanket. For the first time since she woke up, she realized that she was no longer wearing her sweatshirt, but just her thin t-shirt that she wore beneath it. "Um... where's my sweatshirt?"

"It's in the dryer. I had to wash it because... well.. you threw up on it," he explained, beckoning her into a bedroom. He walked over to the closet, opening it and beginning to rifle through the clothes until he found what he was looking for. A faded green flannel shirt and a pair of black sweat pants. "I know they're too big for you, but they'll have to do for now." He handed them to her and then ushered her to the bathroom across the hall.

Stepping into the bathroom she looked around and was taken aback by the utter lack of femininity in the place. She had surely thought that the woman in the pictures she had seen, the woman she believed to be his wife, would have make-up and other various feminine products strewn about the room. While she was busy taking all this in, she didn't realize that he was telling her where all the towels, wash clothes, and soaps were.

"...and the shampoo is sitting on the edge of the bathtub. If you need anything--" Squall was cut off when Yuffie interrupted him.

"Are you the only one that lives here?" she asked quietly, her brows furrowed in confusion as she looked at him.

Equal confusion played across his face. "Yes... why?"

"'Cause... I thought... aren't you married?"

"No, I'm not married. What gave you that idea?"

Pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, Yuffie closed her eyes and shook her head. "Never mind... it was just a random thought that popped into my head." She watched him give her an odd stare and then leave her alone in the spacious bathroom, shutting the door as he left.

She turned on the hot water, letting it heat up before she slowly added the cooler water to make the bath as hot as she could stand it. Peeling off her clothes, she grabbed a wash cloth from the cabinet Squall had pointed out and then slowly lowered herself into the water. A loud, drawn-out sigh escaped her lips at the feel of the warm water caressing her flesh. She could hardly remember the last time she had had an actual bath and not just sponging herself off at some restroom in a gas station.

Leaning back, she lay her head against the back of the tub and allowed herself to relax, breathing the rising steam in as it helped to clear her head. "A few more minutes of this, and I'll be asleep," she muttered under her breath as she shook her head in an attempt to wake herself up. Sighing, she began to scrub herself, beginning with her lanky mop of hair. It had been a few weeks since she had swiped a bottle of shampoo and washed her hair in the store's restroom.

A loud banging on the door and Squall's voice calling to her pulled her out of the reverie she had fallen into. "Are you still alive in there? Or did you drown?" he called through the door.

Finding her voice, she answered him. "I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute." She hadn't realized how long she had been in the bath until he had checked on her. The once steaming water had cooled down considerably and was actually on the verge of being cold. So, quickly rinsing off the soap to reveal now clean skin, she stepped out of the tub and began to dry herself with one of the large, fluffy bath towels he had provided.

Wrapped in the towel, she looked at herself in the mirror and was shocked to find that she appeared to be an almost completely different person. Her hair, though still wet, looked considerably better than it had earlier and her once dirt stained skin was now of a lightly tanned tone. "My protective layer of crud is gone..." she mused as she continued to stare at her reflection.

She pulled on the sweat pants and then the flannel shirt, noticing a slight but distinct masculine smell coming from the shirt. Without realizing it, she took another whiff of the shirt before she shook her head and rolled her eyes at herself in the mirror. "It's just because I'm sick," she quietly reassured herself as she left the room to rejoin her host.

Walking out, she heard muffled voices in the living room. One she recognized as Squall's and the other was of a soft melodic quality, soothing in its sound. She stood hesitantly in the living room doorway and took a good look at the people in there before they could see her. Sitting on the edge of the sofa was a woman of about twenty-five years with the brightest green eyes Yuffie had ever seen. A long chestnut braid cascaded down her back, contrasting nicely with the pale pink blouse she wore over her blue jeans.

Sensing she was being stared at, the woman looked up and smiled when she saw Yuffie. "It's good to see you're up and about. When I was here earlier, you were still out like a rock," she said cheerfully, standing up and walking over to the teenager, her hand outstretched in greeting and a bright smile playing across her face. "Leon tells me your name is Yuffie. I'm Aerith."

Yuffie hesitantly shook the woman's hand, giving her a weak smile in return. "It's nice to meet you... I guess..." she said quietly, covering her mouth as another coughing fit came upon her. As she coughed, the oversized flannel shirt she was wearing slipped slightly down her shoulders. She quickly grabbed it and pulled it back straight, but not before Aerith had noticed.

"What is she doing in these clothes, Leon?" she called to the man as her and Yuffie walked back across the room. She gestured for the teenager to sit down and then took her own seat beside her on the sofa. "These are way too big for her."

The teenager watched as the man she thought of as Squall ran a hand through his hair and sighed, giving Aerith a slightly annoyed look. "Aerith, I don't normally keep women's clothing on hand, you know."

"These are okay. Really they are," Yuffie interjected, wondering why they were so concerned over what she wore. "And as soon as my other clothes are clean, I'll put them back on and be on my way. You've done too much already." She began coughing again, which was soon followed by a round of sneezes and sniffles, causing Aerith to give her a worried look.

"Nonsense. You have to at least stay until you're well. I'm sure Leon won't mind you staying, will you Leon?" Aerith asked, although her tone suggested that he had better not answer in the negative. Not waiting for his answer, she arose and started for the door. "I'll be back in a little bit with some clothes for you to borrow, Yuffie. You can't keep wearing those."

Aerith walked out the door, leaving Yuffie and Leon alone in his apartment. Finally, Yuffie spoke up. "I don't have any money to repay you," she whispered ashamedly, lowering her head and looking at her feet.

"I don't want your money," he answered simply, picking up the mug of tea from the coffee table in front of him and taking a drink.

Gulping, Yuffie raised her head. "I see..." She closed her eyes and then opened them slowly to stare into the stormy depths of his eyes. "Well, I... I've never done this before... so... please be gentle..." She trailed off, a slight blush coming across her cheeks even though she always knew it would come to this eventually. She had just been hoping it wouldn't be so soon that she would have to offer herself to someone.

"What are you talking about?" Leon asked in genuine confusion, his brows furrowed as he looked at her.

"You know... so... uh... do you want to head for the bedroom or... uh... should we just go at it here?"

Tea spewed across the room, some of it landing on her as the man in front of her began to choke, coughing a few times to get the tea out of his windpipe. "WHAT?!"

"Well, you said you didn't want my money... what other reason would you've brought me here?" She wiped the tea off her face with the sleeve of her shirt, the blush still present on her face. "I mean, myself is the only other thing I have to offer..."

Leon stood up and began pacing nervously, giving her strange looks occasionally. "I thought we already went over this. I brought you here because you are sick. I didn't bring you here so I could quote 'have my way with you.' Understand?" By now, he had stopped pacing and was staring at her with his unyielding stormy gaze.

"Yes sir," she mumbled quietly, feeling ashamed of herself for misunderstanding his obvious good intentions. "I... I... I'm sorry."

A knock on the door interrupted their stilted conversation and Leon left her to answer the door, revealing Aerith with an armload of clothes. "I found these in the closet. I think they'll fit. At least, they'll fit better than what you have on," she explained as she pushed the clothes into Yuffie's arms. "Here, go change. Wait..." She gave the teenager a worried look. "You seem to be a little more flushed than you were earlier. How are you feeling?"

"It's just the fever," Yuffie lied, sparing a glance to look at the man behind Aerith. "I'm fine... don't worry about me." She slowly arose from the sofa and walked towards the hall with the clothing, but stopped at the hall's entrance. "Thank you... for everything."

Aerith watched the girl leave the room then turned to Leon. "She cleans up good, doesn't she?" she commented happily.

"Yeah, I guess she does," Leon answered softly.

* * *

_Author's Note: There you go. I have been doing a lot of brainstorming on this story and I have pages upon pages of notes for it. Consequently, I am firmly stuck on my other story "Blind Instinct." So, until my muse wants to work on that again, I'll be working on this. Simply because I have to write. I don't think I can go a day without writing. A day without writing would be like a day without sunshine... Okay, I'll stop now... ANYways, drop me a review. I'm always glad to hear from you guys. _


	4. Chapter Four: Portrait of the LionHeart

_Author's Note: I actually know more of where I'm going with this story than with any other story I have ever written. Be proud of me. Oh, and thank you guys so much for all of the reviews. I really appreciate it. _

_And I just realized that this probably isn't going to be as dark and I originally thought. Nope, not really. :::sigh::: I just can't seem to write dark fics. Anyways, I hope you guys still enjoy the ride._

_[Disclaimer: I own Squall's two cats, Yuffie's mother, the pawn shop guy, and Yuffie's attacker and that's it. Everyone else is copyrighted to their respective owners. Now if I could just get my hands upon Squall...]_

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_Chapter Four: Portrait of the Lion-hearted_

Lying stretched out on the smaller sofa he possessed, Leon mindlessly flipped through the channels on the television set, his eyes wandering every few minutes to the sleeping girl wrapped in blankets on the other sofa in his living room. She had been there for less than ten hours and had spent about eight of those ten hours passed out on his sofa. Staring at her face, he noticed how her cheeks seemed to be slightly sunken in and her eyes had a hollow quality to them, enhanced by the dark rings around her eyes. And her skin, which he had earlier believed to be tanned, was considerably paler now that she had bathed herself.

He watched as she scrunched her face up at something and rolled back over, clutching the tattered teddy bear he had brought with her from the warehouse. The look of surprise and gratitude etched on her face when he had pulled that ragged bear from the dryer and handed it to her still haunted his mind.

A soft knock on the door brought him out of his reverie and quickly got him on his feet before the knocking awoke Yuffie. Just one look at her and he could see how much she needed her sleep. It looked as though she hadn't had a good night's sleep in years. So, quietly crossing the room, he eased the door open to reveal Aerith once again. "Yes?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and giving her a questioning look. After all, it was fairly late for her to be up considering the fact that it was after eleven and she had to be at the little florist shop she owned fairly early.

"Here. I know you wouldn't think of them, so I went down to the drugstore and picked some up," she whispered as she handed him a box of cold medicine before pushing past him and walking into the living room. She let out an annoyed sigh and placed her hand on her brow before turning to stare at him. "Leon, are you just going to keep her on the couch or are you going to let her have an actual bed?"

He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the long bangs out of his eyes as he stared at the girl on the couch. "Well, I thought that since she was already asleep she would be fine there," he muttered, unable to meet his friend's green eyes as they bored into his skull as if he were the stupidest man alive.

"She'll fall right back to sleep. Believe me, she will. I mean, look at her. At this point, nothing could keep her awake," Aerith said softly, gesturing towards the sleeping Yuffie with one hand. "Look, I'll go put some fresh sheets on your spare room bed. And I'll need you to carry her in there when I'm done, okay?" She waited for his nod before she left the room and headed down the hall.

As soon as the spare room door was opened, its prisoners, two black and white cats, bounded out and down the hall to the living room. Stopping a couple of feet away from the couch where Yuffie lay, they inquisitively sniffed the air before the larger of the two began to slowly creep up to her. Leon watched as the cat carefully raised itself up on his haunches and placed its front feet upon the couch, stretching his neck out so he could sniff the girl lying upon _his_ bed.

"Sydney, be nice," Leon warned, prepared to pull the cat away before he had a chance to attack. But, much to his surprise, Sydney soundlessly jumped up on the couch and curled up at the end opposite her head. Leon stared at the cat in slight shock. Most of the time when the cat found someone lying on _his_ spot, he would mercilessly attack them. Hence why Leon had to have the poor cat declawed, along with the more shy Demi.

Demi, the smaller of the two cats, was less aggressive than her feline companion and was far more submissive, shying at the sight of a strange person in the house. In fact, Leon was surprised she had even braved coming out of her hiding spot with Yuffie in the house. Demi was known to hide for days at a time when her normally calm life was disrupted.

"Okay, Leon. Bring her in," Aerith called from the doorway of the spare room.

Leon carefully picked the girl up in his arms, once again surprised at how light she really was. Somehow, she managed to stay sleeping while he carried her, breathing through her mouth as her nose was too stopped up. About halfway down the hall, she squirmed slightly and began to whimper as she turned to bury her head in his shirt. Not knowing what else to do, Leon slowly rubbed her back with hand, mumbling 'shh' as he continued to what would be her room while she was there.

Aerith stepped out of the way to let Leon past her and into the room, pulling back the blankets on the bed for him to set her down. Seeing what the girl was wearing, she let out a sigh. "Leon, go get her one of your shirts to sleep in, okay? Those clothes can't be comfortable for her," she said, using the commanding tone he had heard many times before from her. She always seemed to use it when someone was sick or needing help, making him briefly wonder if she should have been a nurse rather than a florist as he left the room.

He returned a few moments later with the same green flannel shirt she had worn earlier in the day before Aerith had brought her some clothes to wear. He handed it to the woman and then leaned against the wall. That is, until Aerith gave him a pointed stare. "What?"

"Are you just going to stand there while I change her clothes or are you going to leave the room? I'm sure she doesn't want some man she barely knows seeing her half naked," Aerith muttered as she walked over and physically pushed Leon out of the room, closing the door in his face.

Running a thumb down the ridged scar between his eyes, Leon went back into the living room to wait for his friend. Eyeing the small box of cold pills he had laid on the coffee table, he read the label, pushed out the correct dosage out of the foil, and grabbed a glass of water before going back down the hall. He quietly knocked on the door and waited for Aerith to open it.

When she finally did open it, Leon noticed that her eyes were wide with worry and she quickly ushered him into the room, taking the glass from his hand and setting it on the bedside table. "Leon, you've got to see this," she whispered as gently rolled the girl over and raised the back of her makeshift night gown up.

Leon's stormy blue eyes widened briefly, then narrowed slightly when he saw what had addled his friend so. The vertebrate in Yuffie's back jutted out of the skin, showing how truly underweight she was. "No wonder she was so light," he said softly, reaching out as if he were going to run his fingers across her bones, but then quickly pulling his hand back.

Aerith pulled the shirt back down and slowly sat Yuffie up. "Yuffie, honey," she called, gently shaking her by the shoulders.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she raised a hand to rub her eyes. "What mama?" she mumbled, her speech slightly slurred as she was still half asleep and not fully aware of her surroundings.

"Yuffie, you need to take your medicine. It'll help you feel better," Aerith murmured softly, pushing the two pills Leon had brought into the room into the girl's hand.

"Okay, mama." Yuffie obediently placed the two pills in her mouth and then took a drink of the water from the glass Aerith had placed at her lips.

"Good girl," the older woman whispered as she helped the girl settle back down into the blankets, sitting on the edge of the bed and gently stroking her hair until her breathing slowed and became more rhythmic. Then, Aerith arose from her seat and walked out the door, beckoning Leon to follow her as she turned off the light and shut the door behind them. "She really needs to see a doctor, Leon."

The man pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb, looking at Aerith through the hair that fallen across his face. "I know that. But you didn't see how panicky she got when I mentioned that to her earlier, before I brought her here," he explained, leaning against the hall wall and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Which reminds me... why _did_ you bring her here in the first place?" Aerith asked curiously, giving him a small smile. "I mean, it's not like you to bring random people into your apartment. In fact, it's not like you to bring anyone to your apartment. So why her? Not that I'm complaining. I mean, there's no telling what might have happened to her if you hadn't brought her here."

Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. He knew she would ask this eventually. "In all honesty, I don't know why. But... she just looked so pathetic when that man tried to rape her and even I can't kick a wounded puppy. I'm not _that_ cold hearted." He hoped that explanation would suffice, as he no other he could offer her. It still surprised him that he had brought the girl to his apartment.

"I know you aren't. It just takes a lot to get past that cold exterior." She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I still remember the old you, you know. Before you changed."

"Don't even start on that, Aerith. That part of my life is over," he muttered angrily, shrugging her hand off his shoulder as he turned to go back into the living room.

Taking a deep breath, the woman simply let his icy attitude slide right past her. After having to deal with it for five years, she was used to it by now. "So, anyways, Leon, you didn't tell me _why_ you followed her to her... uh... _home_," Aerith prodded, going to the kitchen and grabbing a soda from the refrigerator.

Leon sat down on the couch and leaned back, letting his head fall back. "She stole my wallet a few days ago," he muttered quietly. "And she recognized me after I beat the crap out of that guy and told me that she still had it. So, she took me to the warehouse and returned it to me."

Aerith blinked rapidly a few times, as though she were trying to wake up from a dream of some kind and sat down on the couch across from him. "Let me get this straight. She stole your wallet and you _still_ brought her here?" she asked incredulously. "Wow... I mean, geez Leon... that is not something most people would do."

"Yeah, I know."

"You do realize that if you hadn't of brought her here today, she may have died from a combination of starvation and flu?" She watched as he nodded tiredly. "You know, I think it must have been fate that you found her," she continued, smiling as she saw him roll his eyes at her.

"What is it with you and fate, Aerith? Everything that happens, you say something about fate having a hand in it," he said quietly, staring at her through half-lidded eyes.

The florist took another sip of her drink and smiled broadly. "Of course I do. How else do you explain Cloud and I, hm?" When he didn't answer, she continued, knowing that she had already told him this at least a hundred times before. "I mean, come on. He was one of my best friends growing up and then his parents moved him across the country when we were both thirteen. And my parents move me to the opposite sides of the country the next year. Yet, ten years later, I meet him again at my shop. Now, Mister Cynical, how do you explain that?"

"If I've told you once, Aerith, then I've told you a thousand times. It's all just a coincidence." He ran a hand down his face and stifled a yawn. "Speaking of Blondie, when's he going to get back from Europe?"

"The first week in November," she said excitedly. Even after a year of marriage, she still felt like a newlywed and was always giddy when her husband returned. She just wished he was able to leave the army and not have to travel abroad so much. She always missed him when he was gone. "Anyways, Leon, it's getting kind of late and I should get going."

Leon across the room at the clock hanging on the wall, noting it was already near midnight. Rising to his feet, he escorted Aerith out of his apartment, letting her give him her customary hug before she left. "Goodnight, Aerith," he mumbled tiredly, about to shut the door when she pushed it back open.

"Oh, by the way, be sure you get her to take those pills every eight hours and make sure she gets plenty of liquids. You have my shop number if you need anything, so don't hesitate to call. I can always close the shop down if you need me," she gushed, trying to think of anything else that he might not otherwise think of. "And if her fever gets over 103 degrees, you have to take her to the hospital even if she does panic. Okay?"

"Yes, Aerith." He gently pushed her out the door and shut it in her face, leaning against it and sighing loudly. "She's worse than any mother I've ever seen," he muttered as he locked the door and started towards his own room, flipping off the lights as he went. As he passed the spare room, he stopped for a moment, then slowly opened the door and stared at the small lump in the bed that was his guest for the time being.

Silently walking across the room, he stopped at the side of the bed and leaned over slightly, brushing his hand across her forehead. "Fever's gone down," he muttered to himself, absentmindedly pulling the blanket up to her chin as she had thrown it off her arms which were now covered in small goose bumps from the cooler air. Looking at her face, he noticed how young she appeared. "She can't be more than fifteen."

Just as quietly as he had come in, Leon left the room, shutting the door behind him and walking across to his own room which was located just across the hall from hers. Sighing, he made a mental note to call his restaurant in the morning and inform the assistant manager that he would be taking over for the next few days. Even though Leon owned the restaurant and had no need to actually be there, he still liked managing it himself. And when the urge hit, he could take over in the kitchen and cook the diner's meals himself. But, he would have to take the next few days off until Yuffie was better. He couldn't leave her alone in the apartment while she was sick. And, now that he thought of it, he couldn't leave her alone in the apartment period. She was a thief, after all. She could and probably would rob him blind the moment she got the chance.

He stared at himself in his bathroom mirror, glaring at the angry scar between his eyes. It would always be a reminder of his past mistakes and a reminder of why he had chosen to be alone all these years. And he had managed to keep himself isolated for five years, only letting Aerith and Cloud get close to him. Yet, somehow, that girl in the other room had managed to break down his defenses and cause him to pity someone and want to help them. That was an emotion he hadn't allowed himself to feel since before the accident.

He had built his emotional wall up around himself and kept piling the bricks higher, replacing them as they crumbled. But, this girl had somehow slipped through a crack in his wall that he hadn't known existed and now she was sleeping in his spare room. "This is only until she's well," he reminded himself, closing his eyes tightly. "Besides, Aerith will kill me if I make her leave now."

So, finding no way out of the whole he had dug himself into, Leon finished preparing for bed and climbed beneath the covers of his bed. But, instead of the sleep he so desperately wanted, he could only continue to ponder what exactly had made him bring the young pickpocket into his house. And, not coming up with a satisfactory answer, he finally drifted off to a disturbed sleep, haunted by shadows of his past.

* * *

_Author's Note: Well... uh... there you go. hope you like it. Actually, I'm feeling pretty good right now. I wrote two chapters today. One for this story (obviously) and one for my other active story. So, yeah. I'm feeling very proud right now. Anyways, review and let me know what you think._


	5. Chapter Five: No Silver Lining

_Author's Note: I know... it's been three weeks since I updated. But, now that BI is out of the way, I can focus all my creative energy on this one. Except that my muse wants to start work on "Lullaby," too. :::growls at muse:::_

_And I'm probably going to keep going back and forth from calling Squall 'Squall' and 'Leon.' I think it's mainly depending on the POV and such._

_[Disclaimer: Don't own them. Won't own them._]

* * *

_Chapter Five: No Silver Lining_

The sound of something pounding against the window awakened Yuffie, her eyes fluttering open reluctantly to find dark storm clouds covering the sky and hailstones hitting the glass. She slowly sat up, looking down at the burgundy comforter laying across her and hazily wondered where she was. The vague memory of a man named Squall bringing her to his apartment, feeding her, and letting her bathe suddenly cleared though it didn't ease her confusion. It was still a new and strange thought to her that someone in this city, someone who she had just _robbed_ would bring her into their home.

A splitting headache let itself be known and Yuffie lay herself back down upon the pillows, pulling the blanket up to her chin and curling into a ball as feverish chills raced through her body. She groaned softly, reaching up to rub her temples, her eyes clenched shut against the pain. "I hate being sick," she muttered under her breath, rolling over to help clear her stuffy nose as she gasped for breath between parted lips. A look at the bedside clock showed her that it was just after five in the morning and the way her eyelids kept drooping told her that it was way too early to be getting up.

But, just as slumber nearly reclaimed her, she realized that the bedroom door was shut, sending shivers down her spine. Even as a child, she had been unable to sleep knowing that the door was shut. Something about it caused an absolute terror to settle upon her chest, as though it were forcibly holding her down. So, quickly jumping out of the bed, she stumbled to the door, swaying slightly with both nausea and vertigo, and wrenched the door open.

She crawled back into the bed, clutching her head with one hand and reaching for a kleenex with the other. But, satisfied nonetheless that the terror had dissipated now that the door was open and the soft glow of a nightlight from the hallway washed through the room, sending instant relief to her frazzled nerves. Sniffling as her nose began running again, Yuffie rolled onto her other side and allowed herself to succumb to sleep.

A few hours later, Yuffie awoke to the feel of a calloused hand on her forehead and she lazily opened her eyes, squinting them again when the overhead light threatened to blind her still sleepy eyes. "What's going on?" she rasped, her throat having become raw with breathing through her mouth all night and her lips slightly chapped as well.

"Nothing. I was just checking your fever," Squall explained, removing his hand from her forehead and looking down at her. One could tell she was sick just by the feverish flush on her cheeks and the dark bags under her eyes. "How are you feeling this morning?"

Yuffie sighed, her eyes still closed against the bright light of the room and tried to sit up, only to find that she was having difficulties. "I can't move my legs," she murmured, rubbing her forehead to help ease the headache that was already forming.

"Well, that's because you have two cats lying across them," Squall replied casually, turning to pick up the small box of cold medicine Aerith had left for her the night before.

"Oh," the teenager said softly, slowly opening her eyes to look at her legs and see the two black and white cats sprawled over them. She remembered the way one of them had hissed at her yesterday and looked at her host in doubt. "Uh... didn't one of them try to attack me yesterday? Should I be scared?"

Turning back to the bed, the blue and green pills in one hand and a glass of water in the other, he furrowed his brows and stared at the cats. "If you're scared, I can move them..." he began, handing her the pills which she looked at warily before turning her eyes up to him in question. "Don't worry. They're just cold pills Aerith left for you last night. And if I don't give them to you, she'll have my head."

Yuffie nodded mutely and tossed the pills into her mouth, immediately grabbing the water to wash them down. That done, she gestured towards the cats once more, afraid to touch them for fear that they might lash out at her. She had dealt with alley cats on more than one occasion, most of the time coming out of it with more than a few scratches on her arms. "Um... why are they suddenly all cozy with me?" she asked curiously, not really knowing what else to say.

"Sydney doesn't surprise me, the universe is his cat bed," Squall replied, reaching out to stroke the larger of the two cats, who affectionately butted his head against the palm of his owner's hand. "But, Demi... she tends to be a little shier..." A momentary look of confusion came over his face as he scratched under the second cat's chin, eliciting loud purrs from her throat. He turned his attention back to the girl in the bed. "So, other than not being able to move your legs, are you feeling okay?"

"Relative to WHAT?!" she exclaimed a little louder and a little more heated than she had originally planned, but with the headache pounding away at her skull, she could barely contain it. "I have a raging headache, I can't breath through my nose, my throat feels like someone scraped it with the edge of a knife, my stomach is preparing to throw up everything I've eaten in the last year, and to top it all off, MY STUPID LIPS ARE GETTING CHAPPED!"

Squall took a step back from the bed, his stormy blue eyes wide as he stared at the yelling girl, who had just started coughing from her outburst. "I guess you feel well enough to holler..." he trailed off, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Cringing slightly at his words, Yuffie shut her eyes and lowered her head, a hand reaching up to rub her eyes. "I'm sorry uh... Squa–erm, uh.. Mister Leonhart... er... I mean... uh... sir?" she finished lamely, giving him an apologetic smile and lifting her eyes slightly to look at him. She had never done too well with other people, having learnt at a young age to rely upon herself as most of the world couldn't care less about her.

Eye narrowing slightly, Squall realized that he had never actually introduced himself to her because if he had, he would _not_ have told her his name was 'Squall.' Squall was a name from the past, a past he did not want to revisit. "Where did you learn my name?" he finally inquired rather coldly, but anytime that name was used, he felt an icy barrier rise up around himself.

"Your driver's license," she mumbled quietly, looking back down at the comforter that covered her. She chanced another glance back up to him, noticing the way his eyes had become icy in just the few seconds after she had said his name. "You know, when I.... uh... _borrowed_ it the other day... I... I kinda was looking through it for cash..."

Squall sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, his eyes closed as he tried to lower the icy barrier. "I don't go by Squall anymore. And don't call me Mr. Leonhart or Sir... it makes me feel old," he muttered, leaning his head backwards and looking at the ceiling. "Just... just call me Leon, okay?"

Yuffie nodded quickly, not wanting to upset this man that had taken both the time and effort to bring her into his house. "Alright... Leon," she whispered, remembering that had been the name Aerith had called him yesterday while she had been there.

Shaking his head, Leon pushed away from the wall and started towards the doorway, but stopped, placing his hand upon the doorframe and his face still looking into the hallway. "I'm sorry if I seem cold sometimes, but the name of 'Squall' reminds me too much of the past," he explained, turning his head slightly to look at her. "But, anyways, do you think you can get up to eat or do you want me to bring it in here for you?"

"Uh... I feel a little dizzy when I sit up, but I think I can stumble into the kitchen to eat..." she began, bringing her legs around and placing her feet upon the floor. It was then that she noticed she was no longer wearing the clothes Aerith had brought her, but the green flannel shirt he had loaned her earlier. "I didn't go to sleep in this..." she trailed off, a hot blush coming across her cheeks as she realized that someone had changed her clothes and Leon was the only other person she knew of in this apartment.

A soft chuckle escaped Leon's throat as he noticed her embarrassment and he decided that he might better explain the situation to her. "Aerith came by while you were sleeping last night and insisted that you change clothes. She did it, not me. I wasn't even in the room," he told her, pointing towards the pile of clothing the florist had folded neatly the night before. "Your other clothes are right there if you want to change..."

Nodding, Yuffie hesitantly stood up, the flannel shirt she wore hanging down to her mid-thigh, and gripped the wrought iron headboard of the bed to keep her balance as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She noticed that Leon was still standing in the doorway, watching her as she tried to take a few steps, only to fall backwards onto the bed. "Maybe I should eat in here after all," she muttered quietly, looking up at him to see him nod and walk off down the hallway.

She settled herself back into the bed, sitting up and leaning back against the headboard after having propped up a few pillows behind her. A lump under the covers got her attention and she reached under there to find her stuffed bear, smiling as she brought him out. When Leon had handed her that bear yesterday, still warm from its trip in the dryer, she was hardly able to control the smile that broke out on her face. It was simply amazing to her that he had seen the bear and had thought enough to bring it with her. She briefly wondered why a man that could seem so sweet was not yet married, but then she was reminded of the coldness he could show also, like when she had called him Squall moments before.

Sitting the bear on her lap, she drew her knees up and stared at the bear. "Okay, Moosh," she whispered in a conspiratorial manner, feeling embarrassed to be talking to a stuffed bear at her age, "what do you think--" She broke off when she heard soft chuckling coming from the doorway and she quickly jerked her head around to see Leon standing there with a tray in his hands. "I was... uh... talking to my bear?"

"I assumed as much," the man replied, handing the tray to her and then pulling a chair from across the room to sit at her bedside while she ate her breakfast of toast and orange juice. He figured the toast would be easy on her stomach and the vitamin C in the orange juice would help fight off her cold. "So, Yuffie, tell me about yourself."

Taking a drink of her juice to help ease the toast down her dry throat, she nodded. "Well... what do you want to know?" she inquired, hoping he wouldn't try and dig into her life. He had mentioned that he did not want to be reminded of his past and she was the same way. There were certain aspects of it she wished she could forget, yet they would still haunt her daily.

"Your name, for one," he said, but seeing the confused look on her face as he already knew her first name, he elaborated, "Your whole name since you seem to know mine."

She set the piece of toast she had been about to bite into back down on the small plate and took a deep breath. "Why do you want to know? You aren't going to turn me into the police, are you?" she asked worriedly, sparing a glance to judge the distance between the bed and the door in case she needed a quick exit.

Leon raised his hands defensively, leaning back in his chair. "Seeing as how I got my wallet back with everything still there, I don't think I would have a reason to justify the mess that I would have to go through to do that."

"Yuffie Kisaragi," she finally said quietly, realizing there was no way to get around telling him, at least no polite way to get out of telling him. And considering the circumstances, she did owe it to him to tell him. She took another small bite of toast, her stomach having still not decided whether it would revolt on her or not this morning.

"Do your parents know where you are?" he inquired, picking up the cat that had wandered into the room and was about to jump onto the bed. He assumed Yuffie did not want cat hair in her food, so he kept a tight grip on Sydney instead.

Yuffie closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, not wanting to think about her parents right now, but also knowing that he would persist until she gave him an answer. "My parents died when I was four... they were murdered, actually." The headache that had turned to a dull throb now began to pound again, causing her to wince. She opened her eyes and noticed that he was about to say something, but she quickly stopped him. "And don't say your sorry. I don't want your pity," she snapped.

Leon shut his mouth with a snap, nodding mutely and silently respecting her for her response. He knew of too many people who loved to revel in self-pity and receive pity from others. "What about the rest of your family?" he finally said, trying to figure out why someone as young as her could possibly be living on the streets, near starvation.

"They either don't exist or they didn't care 'cause I haven't heard from any of them since then," she scoffed, taking a sip of her juice in the hopes that the cool liquid would help with the aching of her head. She could see in his eyes that he wanted to know more, and she silently debated whether or not she should tell him the rest. Sighing, she finally acquiesced. "I spent the next nine years being shuffled around from foster home to foster home. I didn't like the people and the people didn't like me. So, I left the last one four years ago and I haven't regretted it."

Adding up the years in his head, Leon started with the age of four years she had said she was when her parents died, making his eyes widen when he realized how old she actually was. "Wait a minute. You're seventeen?" he asked incredulously, his eyes going over her blanket covered form to try and verify the fact.

The teenager wryly raised an eyebrow, staring at him. "Eighteen in a month and a half," she replied, watching him as he watched her. She knew she had always been a little on the childish side in appearance, but it had never bothered her. If anything, it helped when she stole someone's wallet. Especially when she made up her sob stories, such as the one she had tried to use on Leon the night she had taken his wallet. "Got a problem with it?"

"No. You just don't... well, you just don't _look_ seventeen." He silently decided that this was going to be harder than he had originally thought. When he had first brought her in, he had hoped that he would be able to talk her into going back to the family he had thought she had run away from. But, seeing as how she was nearly eighteen and didn't have a family, he decided that wouldn't work.

As she was eating, Yuffie noticed that she was having an increasingly hard time trying to get her eyes to stay open and to keep the yawns at bay. On the plus side, she could feel her stuffy nose clearing and the aching in the head subsiding. "Look, I don't mean to be rude and all, but I'm feeling really tired right now and I don't think I can finish this and I just want to go back to sleep..." she rambled, looking at Leon pleadingly. "I don't know why I'm so tired either."

He picked up the box of cold pills, reading the back of it to see what the side effects were and smiling slightly when he came across the first one. "Right here, it says 'May cause drowsiness,'" he told her, picking up the tray her breakfast had been on and noting that she had eaten most of it.

"Okay... well, I'm gonna go back to sleep then," she muttered, already sliding down the headboard and into the blankets, her arms around the small stuffed bear. "Goodnight, Squall," she slurred sleepily as slumber reclaimed her.

"Leon," he corrected, knowing it was fruitless to do so as she was already out of it.

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_Author's Note: Ack... nothing like what I wanted. Nothing at all like I wanted. Anyways, I'M SO SORRY that I've taken so long to write this chapter. But, at least I did get Blind Instinct finished. And this is my only active story right now. So, anyways, review a way now that you've read. And I'll try to start getting at least one chapter out a week, maybe more sometimes. I don't really know yet. School starts back for me on Wednesday and I'm not sure how tough this semester is going to be. It's my last, and I'm taking Senior Seminar, so it might be fairly difficult. I think someone told me you have to write a 20 page paper in Senior Seminar :::shudders::: Anyways, I'm rambling. I'll go post right now._

_And, VL, there. I got a chapter up for this story. I know you have been waiting ever so patiently for it. :::snorts:::_


	6. Chapter Six: A Little Sunshine

_Author's Note: I swear, I am actually going to get somewhere in this chapter. Oh, and if you want to see a picture of the two cats Squall's are based off of, go to my livejournal. I have the link listed as my homepage of my fanfiction profile. Oh, and any of Squall's opinions on animals (you'll see in the chapter) are not shared by me. I happen to love most animals._

_Ack... I found a mistake on my part. In chapter three, I said Squall had a corner sofa and then in chapter four I said he had two sofas, opposite each other. Just forget all about the corner sofa. Just erase it from your memory. :)_

_[Disclaimer: I own Sidney, Demi, Amaya, the pawnshop guy, and the man who tried to rape Yuffie. Everyone else belongs to their respective owners.]_

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_Chapter Six: A Little Sunshine _

For the next few days, Yuffie floated in and out of consciousness, staying awake for an hour or so at a time before the cold pills would kick in and make her fall asleep once more. But, her fever was steadily going down and her frequent headaches were gradually disappearing. And as she began to feel better, she would wander around the apartment, scaring Leon half the time as he was used to being alone in the apartment. It didn't help that, as a thief, Yuffie had learned to walk silently and, thus, would unintentionally sneak up on her host.

Yuffie stepped quietly into the living room, immediately seeing Leon standing in the kitchen with his back to her as he cut up some vegetables. On the stove, she could both smell and hear the sounds of a roast sizzling as he seared the outside before putting it into the oven. Her nose in the air, deeply breathing in the heavenly scent of the food he was preparing, the teenager crossed the living room and the kitchen, stopping just behind Leon as she stood on tiptoe to peer over his shoulder. "What're you cooking?" she piped up suddenly, jumping backwards when the man in front of her spun around, knife in his hands.

"Don't do that!" he hissed, sticking the bleeding thumb he had sliced when she just appeared behind him into his mouth. It never ceased to amaze him how many times she had done just that in only the five days she was there. Especially since for most of those five days she had stayed in bed. "We need to get you a bell or something to wear around your waist," he muttered as he washed the blood off his thumb and the knife blade before turning back to cutting up the vegetables. "And I'm making a roast, by the way."

Yuffie took another whiff of the roast, closing her eyes and smiling as she did so. "It smells delicious," she murmured, temporarily forgetting what she had come in here for. "So, you do this at your restaurant, right?" She remembered him telling her one day that he owned an Italian restaurant called The Rustic Oven, but he since Yuffie had been staying at his apartment, he had only spent a few hours a day there, conducting most of his business over the phone.

His eyes on the task at hand, chopping up the carrots, potatoes, onions, and other various root vegetables, Leon answered her. "Not very often. I used to, when I first got the place. But, now, I'm mainly just manage most things," he explained, taking the now seared roast off the burner and placing the vegetables around it, covering it with a lid and carrying it towards the oven. "Open the oven, please."

Doing as directed, Yuffie opened the oven for Leon, her mouth already watering for the food. Never in her life had she been fed such delicious food on a daily basis. Which brought her back to her reason for coming out of her room to find Leon in the first place. "Uh... So, Leon, I guess I'll be leaving tonight since I'm not sick any more," she tried to say cheerily, but failing miserably. But, she knew she didn't belong here. She would never be able to fit in and she couldn't impose any more on his hospitality.

"I suppose so," Leon muttered in reply, washing his hands as he silently wondered what would happen to this girl if she returned to the streets. He decided that she would probably return to pickpocketing and, when that 'job' stopped giving her enough cash, maybe even prostitution, leaving just a shell of the girl that she once was. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Uh.. okay," Yuffie stammered as she watched him quickly dry his hands and walk to the apartment door, nearly slamming it shut behind him. Shrugging, the former pickpocket plopped down on the sofa, flipping on the TV and channel surfing until she came across one of the cartoons she had grown to love in the past few days.

In the hallway, Leon leaned against his door, wondering _why_ he felt compelled to do what he was about to do. What was it exactly with this girl that made him not want to let her go back to living on the streets? In his life, he had seen plenty of people living on the streets, and while he did pity them, he never felt the urge to help them anymore than giving them a little spare change.

Sighing, Leon crossed the hall to Aerith's door, knocking relentlessly as he heard her small dog yipping in the background. He hated small dogs. They just seemed like overgrown rats to him. The door was thrown open and a harried-looking Aerith stood there looking at him, a small black and white dog in her arms that was growling and trying to lunge towards Leon. "What do you need, Leon?" she asked as she stepped away from the door to let him in, putting the dog down as soon as the door was shut.

"I have a favor to ask, Aerith," Leon began, dodging the dog that was jumping and biting his pants leg as he tried to walk into the living room. "And what is the deal with the damn dog?"

"Iris, sit!" the florist commanded, pointing towards the floor as she did so. The dog, though still eyeing Leon warily, did as her master bade and dropped to the floor, big butterfly-like ears twisting to follow what she deemed as the intruder. Aerith sat on the couch, sighing tiredly and looked at her guest. "Okay, what's the favor? Or should I ask, what's the chore?"

Leon cringed slightly, remembering it had just been a week ago that he had begged Aerith to do his laundry for him. Of course, he later regretted it when all his white clothes came back pink, which he promptly rewashed and bleached himself. "No, it's not a chore. It's about Yuffie."

Aerith cocked her head to the side, her eyebrows raised slightly, and stared at him, urging him to continue. When he didn't, she rolled her eyes in exasperation and verbally prompted him. "Well, are you going to tell me or not?'

"Can she live with you?" Leon asked bluntly, figuring it would be a lot easier and faster this way. He never was good at leading up to things.

The florist's bright green eyes widened and she leaned back slightly in shock. "I... uh... huh?" she stammered in confusion, trying to get a grasp on the situation.

Nervously running a hand through his long mahogany hair, Leon continued. "She's planning on leaving tonight and we can't let her go back to living on the streets. There's no telling what will eventually happen to her," he explained, taking a seat at the other end of the couch, turned towards Aerith.

"Well, no. I knew that. What I want to know is why me? I mean, I'd gladly take her in _except_ that she's already used to living with you _and_ you need a little more light in your life. You've been living in the shadows for far too long," Aerith said firmly, staring at him pointedly and using the same tone of voice she used on her dog when she wanted her to mind.

"But, Aerith... she's only seventeen. What would it look like for a twenty-six year old bachelor to take in a seventeen year old girl? People would talk," Leon argued, already knowing that he was going to lose the fight. Whenever Aerith set her mind to something, she always followed through, no matter what she had to do to get there.

"People will always talk, Leon. You know that as much as I do," the florist pointed out, refusing to back down from her position. "Besides, you told me yourself how amazed you were that Sydney and Demi took to her so fast. Especially Demi." She paused and leaned towards her guest slightly. "Leon, Demi doesn't even like _me_ unless I have tuna on my breath and I've known her for three years."

Leon ran a hand down his face, running his thumb along the jagged scar between his eyes as he did so. "You're telling me I should keep her because _my cat_ likes her?" he asked incredulously, his stormy blue eyes widening and then narrowing.

"It's a sign, Leon. It's like she's saying 'Can we keep her?' Consider it fate."

"Enough with the fate stuff, Aerith. You know I don't believe in fate," he said in frustration, rising from his seat and starting towards the door. He stopped and turned back to his longtime friend. "So, should I buy her a collar and license?"

"What?" Aerith asked in confusion.

Leon threw his head back, rubbing his forehead as he did so. "Never mind, Aerith, never mind," he muttered as he left her apartment and went to his own, opening the door to hear Yuffie laughing. He looked across the room to see her lounging on the couch, watching a cartoon with a blond man wearing a black muscle shirt, who was trying to get the girl but never succeeding. Leon couldn't help but see how natural Yuffie looked in the setting which slightly disturbed him for some reason. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he walked over and sat in the love seat opposite the couch. "How do you watch that show?" he finally asked after Yuffie spared a passing glance to him before going back to the cartoon.

"I like it. I mean, come on. It's hilarious," she began, pausing to laugh as the man was hit by his would be date once again. "He's such a mama's boy and doesn't even know it. I actually feel sorry for him."

"Whatever," Leon muttered, leaning his head back and closing his eyes to take a short nap. But with the thought of Yuffie being his permanent guest running through his head, he was finding it hard to do so. What was he going to do with a girl in his apartment? There hadn't been one there since _her_ and that was five years ago. And he was younger than he was now and _she _had been older than Yuffie. Things were different then.

And that didn't even bring into account the fact that Yuffie might not _want_ to stay. She had already expressed an urge to leave just that afternoon. For all he knew, she could take his offering of a roof over her head as a form of pity, which he had found out early on that she hated. Of course, he could always blackmail her into staying if it came down to it. After all, she was _still_ a minor and a runaway from her last foster home, not to mention a pickpocket. All he had to do was report her to the police and they would take matters from there.

Again, this brought him back to _why_ he was doing this. Why would he go through all the trouble to keep her there with him? Why did he feel compelled to keep her around? But, it was one thing that both he and Aerith agreed on. They couldn't let Yuffie go back to living on the streets, not after they had both seen the condition she was in when he had brought her here.

Mulling this all over in his mind, he opened his eyes and stared at the girl, who had quieted considerably when she noticed he was trying to take a nap. After only five days here, she was already gaining weight that she needed. The hollows that had been in her cheeks were filling out slightly and her eyes didn't have the dark rings around them anymore. Of course, part of that could have been due to her illness that she was now over, but the way her vertebrate jutted out of her skin wasn't. That had to have been from months of malnourishment.

He didn't know how long he had sat there, musing over the situation at hand, until the timer on the oven went off to tell him that the roast he had put in there earlier was done. Rising from his seat, Leon stretched his arms over his head and yawned before going into the kitchen to retrieve their dinner from the oven before it burnt. He noticed that Yuffie was following closely behind him, eyes already on the oven door. "I still have to carve it, you know," he said over his shoulder, laughing silently when he saw the look of disappointment on her face.

"How long will that take?" Yuffie asked, her voice sounding just slightly whiny but she couldn't help it. That smell had been taunting her senses for the last hour or so, begging her to just come and take a bite. Besides, this would be the last good meal she would have since she'd be leaving tonight.

"Not long," Leon answered, pulling the roast out of the oven and setting it on the stove. "But it has to rest for fifteen minutes or it'll dry out." The look of horror on her face was priceless. He pointed towards the cabinets while he pulled a knife out of the butcher's block. "Make yourself useful and set the table or something."

Complying, Yuffie reached into the cabinet and pulled out two of the blue and white plates, lingering as she passed by the roast. "Are you _sure_ you have to wait fifteen minutes? I mean, what if I just took a small bite right now?" she pleaded, looking back and forth between him and the roast.

Reaching into the pan, Leon pulled out a small piece of potato with a fork and handed it to her. "Will that satisfy you until it's actually ready to eat?" he asked, nearly laughing at how fast she grabbed the fork and stuffed the potato into her mouth. He had to admit, he had never seen anyone eat as much or as often as her since she got over her nausea while sick.

The fifteen minutes Leon insisted upon finally passed and he carved the roast, much to Yuffie's relief. As far as she knew, this was her last real meal. Their dinner passed in silence with Yuffie shoveling the food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow and Leon watching her out of the corner of her eye.

Dropping her fork as she took her last bite, Yuffie looked up at Leon. "Well, I guess it's time for me to be going," she announced, rising from the table and going back to the spare room for her stuff. She stopped in the hallway and looked down at her clothes. She was still wearing the stuff Aerith had loaned her. "Uh... do you think Aerith wants her clothes back?"

"Nope. She won't mind," Leon called back to her, taking the plates to the kitchen and placing them in the dishwasher. He watched as she came back into the living room, a plastic bag in one hand with her clothes and stuffed bear. Before she reached the door, though, he had beat her to it and stood in front of it, blocking her path.

"Uh... is there anything else?" Yuffie wondered aloud, confused by his actions and trying to sidle past him. He only placed his arms on either side of the door to prevent her exit. "I really do need to leave and find some place before it gets dark."

"I want you to stay here a little longer," Leon told her, his voice coming out a little colder than planned.

Yuffie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she tried to figure out what he was up to. Her thoughts flew back to what she had offered him her first day here and she took an involuntary step backwards. "I thought you said you didn't want that!"

"What?" Leon asked, now his turn to be confused until he realized what she was talking about. He ran a hand through his hair. "No, no, no! Why do you keep thinking that? What I meant was that I think there's a lot more you can do with yourself. if you stay with me I can at least help you stand on your own two feet–_without_ committing misdemeanors on a daily basis to survive."

"Like what?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, if you stay here, I can give you a job at the restaurant so you'll be earning your money honestly," he explained calmly.

Yuffie rolled her eyes and tried to get past him once more. "I've told you before, I don't need or want your pity. Now let me leave."

Leon stood his ground, still blocking the doorway. "If you don't stay here, I have no other option than to report you to the authorities. You are _still _a minor and, therefore, you would have to return to a foster family until you turn eighteen. Not to mention, you were a pickpocket," he told her coldly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Are you _threatening _me?" Yuffie asked just as coldly as him.

"Yes, I am," he replied, eyes narrowing slightly as he began to wonder what he was getting himself into. "It's your choice." He stepped away from the doorway, opening the door so she could leave if she wanted.

Tiredly rubbing her eyes, Yuffie glared at him. "Fine. You win. I'll stay here until I turn eighteen and then I am out of here. Got it?"

"Okay, then," Leon muttered, shutting the door and watching as she stomped off down the hallway to what he now considered to be her room. "Aerith, you owe me for this," he mumbled, going back into the kitchen to finish cleaning up.

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_Author's Note: Gotta go post. VL is yelling at me. Anyways, review for me. I don't know when the next post will be since school starts tomorrow and college sucks. Okay, I'm done._


	7. Chapter Seven: Forming a Bond

_Author's Note: Okay, I forgot to disclaim the name of Squall's restaurant in the last chapter. I'm told that The Rustic Oven is an actual restaurant somewhere. I'm just borrowing the name. So, if you know that place, don't go in there expecting to find Squall. :)_ _And for those of you who guessed Johnny Bravo as the cartoon Yuffie was watching, you were right. I LOVE that cartoon even though I don't watch it near enough._

Okay, I had to reload this chapter since my original scene breaks didn't work. :::growls at fanfiction:::

_[Disclaimer: I find myself doing this every chapter of every story even though you guys probably already know that I don't own the characters. And you probably already know that I want to own Squall. So, there. That's my disclaimer this time. And, just in case, I don't own Wal-Mart either, since I do mention it in this chapter.]_

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_Chapter Seven: Forming a Bond _

On the couch in Leon's living room sat Yuffie, her arms crossed over her chest and her indigo eyes glaring angrily at the man's back as he walked out of the room. It had been nineteen hours and twenty-seven minutes since Leon had _threatened _her into staying and it had been nineteen hours and twenty-six minutes since she had last spoken to him. And she was meticulously keeping track of the time, wondering how long it would take before her silent treatment broke him and he allowed her to leave.

In her mind, it was one thing to _invite_ her to stay with him, but _threatening _was quite another. If he had asked her to stay, instead of demanding it, she knew she would have given in simply because she enjoyed his company, no matter how cold he sometimes appeared. His coldness intrigued her in a way she couldn't understand. But, he _hadn't_ asked her to stay and that thought didn't sit well with her. Even as a child, Yuffie had never liked being ordered around and, now, here she was, being commanded to do something by a man she hardly even knew.

A knock on the door caused her to turn her head and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Leon poking his head out of his bedroom door and glare at her. "Do you think you can get that?" he demanded, pointing at the front door as another knock sounded.

"What am I, his slave labor now?" Yuffie muttered darkly under her breath as she rose from the couch and slowly crossed the room to the door. She wrenched it open, a scowl on her face which immediately softened when she realized that it was Aerith at the door, and even if the woman _was _Leon's friend, she had still treated the teenager with nothing but kindness and sweetness. "Aerith," Yuffie sighed, stepping away from the door and letting the woman into the apartment.

Green eyes looked at Yuffie worriedly, her brows furrowed as she studied the girl and could obviously see the distress on her face. "Is something wrong, Yuffie?" Aerith asked quietly, reaching out and putting a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "You can talk to me about anything, you know. And I won't tell a soul about what goes on between us."

"I--" Yuffie opened her mouth to speak, but she saw Leon coming up the hall towards them and she shut her mouth with a snap. Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits as she glared over Aerith's shoulder at him before turning her gaze back to the florist. "Aerith, tell Leon that he's being a jerk, forcing me to stay here like some animal..."

Leon started to say something, but Aerith cut him off before he even had a chance to let the words out of his mouth. "Yuffie, why don't we go do something today? I mean, you've been cooped up in this apartment for almost a week now and some fresh air will do you good. Not to mention that you need to get out of this man-apartment," the florist rushed out, grabbing Yuffie's arm and ushering her to the door.

"Uh... Aerith, I don't have any shoes on," Yuffie said, stopping the woman before she pushed her completely out of the door. "I think I might need some shoes to go anywhere, don't you?"

Looking down at the teenager's bare feet, the florist laughed. "Yeah, that might be helpful. Okay, you go get your shoes on and I'll wait for you." She waited until Yuffie was out of the room and then rounded on Leon. "Okay, Leon. Why is she so upset?" she hissed angrily, her hands on her hips and eyes boring into his. "What exactly did you say to her last night?"

"I just told her that if she didn't stay here, I would turn her into the authorities," Leon explained nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as he did so.

"Leon, you weren't supposed to _threaten_ her! Did you ever think that if maybe you just _asked_ she might have stayed?" Aerith raised a hand to rub her eyes and then pinched the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. "You know what? Don't answer that. Just give me some money."

Stormy blues eyes widened in surprise and stared at the woman in front of him, trying to figure out _why_ she wanted _his_ money. But seeing that demanding look in her eyes and having prior experience with the florist when she had her mind set on something, he reluctantly pulled out his wallet and handed her some bills, not even bothering to count how much he gave her. "And _why_ am I giving you money, Aerith?"

"Because Yuffie needs some clothes of her own. She can't just keep wearing my old stuff. I'll take her shopping today and I'll split the cost with you fifty-fifty, okay?" Aerith insisted, not even waiting for his answer before putting the money into her purse. "And I'll try to smooth things over between the two of you. You can't live together if you aren't even talking."

Yuffie walked back into the living room, wearing a pair of faded and torn orange sneakers along with the blue jeans and green blouse Aerith had loaned her. The clothes hung off her body as they were just a little too big for tiny frame. "Okay, Aerith. I'm ready and where are we going?" she asked as she walked to the door, the florist following right behind her.

"Shopping," Aerith sang happily, turning back to smile sweetly at Leon as they left. "And, Leon, don't expect us until we get back."

* * *

After weaving through the traffic and road construction that always seemed to be going on in this city, Aerith and Yuffie finally made it across town to the large mall located there. During the ride, the two of them made idle chit-chat about their music preferences as they channel-surfed on the radio. They both avoided the subject of Leon: Aerith because she knew there was tension between him and Yuffie; and Yuffie because she was still too angry with him and didn't want to make herself seem too ungrateful while with his friend.

"And I just love Amy Lee's voice," Yuffie said as she climbed out of the Aerith's SUV and stood next to it, waiting for the florist to join her before she began walking across the parking lot. "So, anyways, what kind of shopping are you doing?"

"We're getting you some clothes that will actually fit you better than that," the brunette explained, pointing to the seemingly baggy clothes Yuffie wore. "And we'll get your hair done and your ears pierced and you could use some new shoes..." She trailed off when she noticed that with each thing she proposed Yuffie's eyes grew wider and a look of fear came into them. "Hey, Yuffie, relax. I'm not going to bite."

"Then why are you doing all this for me?" the teenager asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watched Aerith's facial expression. She was still finding it hard to believe that after seventeen years of life, she had found some people who were willing to help her. And old suspicions die hard.

There was a long pause while Aerith tried to find the words she wanted to say and she gently grabbed Yuffie's arm to keep her from walking on. "I've always wanted a daughter," she began, sounding almost apologetic as she did so. "And you're the closest thing I've ever had to one."

Scrunching her eyebrows together, Yuffie looked down at the ground and studied the cracks in the pavement. She finally looked back up at Aerith and grinned. "Well, let's get this party started then. I've never really done a lot of shopping. Just a little bit with my foster families and before that, I just vaguely remember shopping with my mother but..." she trailed off, not wanting to think about her mother right now. She didn't need to or want to deal with the grief right now.

Aerith smiled brightly and nodded, already starting for the mall entrance again with Yuffie in tow. "Alright then. We'll start at the shoe store and get you something more comfortable to walk in since we're going to be here for awhile," she told her, already mapping out a route through the stores in the mall in her head. "And then we'll get your hair done."

"Uh... Aerith, how about we just take this one step at a time, okay?" the teenager pleaded, following the florist into the shoe store that was located near the entrance. She balked when she saw the prices on the shoes and started to back out of the store, but the woman stopped her.

"Yuffie, where are you going?" Aerith asked quietly, dragging the teenager back into the store and towards the back, where they kept the walking shoes. "You need a pair of sneakers since those look like they're about to fall apart."

Taking another look at the prices, Yuffie tried to escape again but to no avail. Aerith's grip on her arm was like steel. "Aerith, the prices on these shoes are outrageous. Shouldn't we try Payless or something?" she hissed as she saw the saleswoman coming towards them.

"Don't worry about it, Yuff," Aerith whispered as she turned towards the saleswoman and smiled, already pointing to a sneaker on the display that she wanted Yuffie to try on. "What size shoe do you wear?"

Yuffie looked around helplessly, finding that between the florist and the saleswoman she was trapped. Sighing, she sat down in the chair provided. "Size six, I think. I'm not too sure since I've never really had to worry about it," she muttered as she watched the saleswoman bustle off to the back room. She turned back to Aerith. "Aerith, I don't see how you're gonna be able to afford to buy me these shoes and everything else you wanted to today."

Aerith took a seat next to Yuffie, pointing down at her shoes to signal her to take them off before she started talking. "Money is not a problem. Between me and Leon, it definitely won't be a problem. So quit worrying about it," she explained, running her fingers through the teenagers short ebony hair and grimacing when she saw all the split ends. "And we are going to get your hair done next. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

The saleswoman soon came back, shoe box in her hands which she sat in the empty chair on the other side of Yuffie before handing the teenager the shoes to try on. Seeing that they fit her, Aerith told the saleswoman that Yuffie would be wearing them out of the store and asked if they could dispose of Yuffie's other shoes. Then, after paying for them, Aerith dragged Yuffie down to the first place she could to get her hair done.

While her hair was being washed and cut, Yuffie began to wonder what was going on between Aerith and Leon. After all, she knew that Aerith wasn't the woman in the pictures Leon carried around with him but she wasn't sure what exactly she was to the man. "So, uh... Aerith, what exactly's going on between you and Leon? Are you dating or what?" she finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

A loud snort caused her to jerk her head towards the florist and the hairdresser to reprimand her as she very nearly lost a large chunk of her hair when she did that. She turned her head back to the front and waited for Aerith to quit laughing and answer her.

"We're just friends, Yuffie," the brunette finally said when she managed to catch her breath. "And we've been friends for a very long time. About eight years, I think." She paused to think for a moment, trying to place the dates in her head. "Yeah, eight years because we were both freshmen at the university and that's when we met."

"Oh, friends, huh?" the teenager said, smirking at the florist. "I think I've heard that line from people before."

Aerith sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, giving the teenager a playfully exasperated stare. "Yes, just friends," she reiterated, digging into her purse at the same time and pulling out a few pictures. "Besides, I'm married." She handed the pictures to Yuffie. "That's Cloud, my husband. He's in the military and overseas right now. But he'll be back in November."

Yuffie stared at the picture, nodding approvingly when she saw the spikey-blonde haired man with stunningly blue eyes. "Hm... not bad, not bad at all," she muttered, turning to Aerith and grinning. "I'd say you did pretty good in the man department." She passed the pictures back to the older woman, trying to keep her head as still as possible while the hairdresser finished up.

Finally, Yuffie's chair was spun around so she could look in the mirror to see what had been done with her hair and she found herself pleasantly surprised. The ragged ends that she had done herself only a few weeks before were smoothed out and her ebony hair framed her face. And the shampoo and conditioner the stylist had used had helped with the split ends and added a sheen to it. "Wow..." she murmured, staring at her reflection.

"You like it then?" Aerith asked as she paid the hairdresser.

"Yeah. It looks so much better than I ever thought it could." She turned and eyed the various bottles of shampoos and conditioners sitting on the display shelves. "And those work a lot better than Leon's shampoo," she whispered, pointing to the bottles.

The florist turned to her. "You've been using Leon's shampoo?" she asked incredulously.

Confused, Yuffie nodded. "Um... yeah... why?"

Not giving her an answer, Aerith quickly had a bottle of shampoo and conditioner added to the bill and paid for them. "Yuffie," she finally said as they left the place, "Leon couldn't care less what he used on his hair. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you've been using dish soap on your hair if you've been using his."

They wandered through the mall, finally coming upon a clothing store that was a personal favorite of Aerith's and she insisted they stop in there to begin what she called 'real shopping.' "Yuffie, I just _know_ that you'll love the stuff in here," she began as she darted into the store and immediately began pulling shirts from the racks for the teenager to try on.

Yuffie paled when she noticed that nearly all the blouses Aerith had in her hands were in different shades of pink. "Um... Aerith, I don't me to sound rude... but... uh... pink is _not_ my color," she stammered, her eyes growing as the pile of pink clothing in the woman's arms increased.

"Are you sure you don't want to wear pink?" Aerith asked, her eyes pleading with the teenager. "Can't you at least try it on?"

Biting her lip, Yuffie eyed the pink clothes and tried not to grimace. She had always hated pink, even as a young girl. And she remembered a few of her foster mothers trying to force the color on her. "If I wear purple and red, will you lay off the pink?"

Sighing, Aerith nodded as she began hanging the pink clothing back on the racks. "Okay, you win," she muttered, already looking around the store and eyeing the other clothes. A rack of blue jeans caught her eye and she dragged Yuffie over to them. "We can start with the blue jeans and work our way up."

Aerith began pulling various sizes of blue jeans down and handed them to Yuffie, trying to judge what size the girl would wear. After about the fifth pair in her arms, Yuffie stopped the woman from handing her anymore. "Aerith, the dressing rooms say no more than five items," she pointed out as she walked over to them.

"Okay, okay. Go try those on and see which size you wear and _then_ we'll get you some more."

After trying on all five pairs and finding that all of them were still too big on her, Yuffie opened the dressing room door and stared at Aerith. "They were all too big," she muttered, handing the stack to Aerith.

Looking at the tags, Aerith sighed and found a smaller pair. "Here, try these on," she said, handing the blue jeans to the teenager.

A few minutes later, Yuffie stepped out of the dressing room wearing the blue jeans. "Yeah, these fit. What size are they, anyways?"

"Zero," Aerith muttered disgustedly, going to find more clothes for the girl to try on.

"Size zero? Does that mean I don't exist?" Yuffie asked incredulously as she looked down at the blue jeans.

A few feet away from her, Aerith pushed through the racks of clothes and grabbed some more blue jeans. "Oh how I hate you..." she muttered in mock anger as she handed some more clothes to the girl, this time a sleek black dress as well.

Yuffie looked at the dress in distress, slowly taking it from the woman's arms. "Why do I need a dress? I'm not going to a party, am I?"

"You never know when you'll need to look nice," Aerith explained, pointing towards the dressing room. "Now go try it on." She noted happily that the teenager had conceded to her demands and entered the room, only to emerge a few minutes later wearing the dress.

"Well?" Yuffie prodded sheepishly, noticing that the florist was staring at her legs.

Aerith blinked a few times before looking back up at Yuffie. "Yuffie, don't you shave your legs?" she hissed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to them.

"Uh... no. Why would I?" the teenager asked pointedly, trying to make Aerith realize that a person doesn't worry about stuff like that when they live on the streets.

Shaking her head, Aerith closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "Okay, okay. We'll go by Wal-Mart or something and get you a razor and stuff," she decided, ushering Yuffie back into the dressing room to try on the other clothes she had found for her.

After spending another hour trying on and buying clothes in that particular store, Aerith looked at her watch and realized how late it was and that they hadn't had dinner yet. She voiced these thoughts to Yuffie as she led her out to her SUV so they could relieve themselves of the many bags before going to the small Mexican restaurant located inside the mall. As soon as they were seated and had placed their orders, Aerith decided it was time to broach the subject of Leon and try to help the teenager understand him.

"Yuffie, I think it's time I told you a little bit about Leon. To help you understand why he is the way he is," she began, nervously tugging on her braid and taking a sip of her tea while she struggled to find a way to explain him without going into the things she knew he would not want revealed.

"Oh, you mean why he's an asshole?" Yuffie asked sarcastically, becoming angry with him once more when she thought back to the way he had demanded she stay there and then threatened her.

Aerith winced at the girl's bitter tone, but realized that she did have a reason for being so mad at the man. "I suppose you could look at it that way," she conceded slowly, pausing to let it sink in before she continued, "but he's letting you stay with him. He took you off the streets and fed you and made sure you got back on your feet. Now he wants to make sure you can stand on them well."

Sighing, Yuffie looked down at her napkin sheepishly as she tore the paper into small pieces. "I know... and I _am_ grateful for it. But he's just been so cold and the way he _threatened _me... well, it just made me mad. I mean, I'm used to living by myself and by my own rules and then he comes along and expects differently..."

"Leon acts so cold to help him live with his past... so prevent himself from getting close to anyone else," Aerith said quietly, furrowing her brows as she thought back to the events that had happened years ago. "Like I told you earlier, we met our freshman year at the university and it wasn't long after classes started that Leon's parents died in a car crash."

Yuffie looked up at her, shock on her face. "Leon didn't tell me any of this... not even when he asked about my parents..." she trailed off, remembering that she had told him they had been murdered, which she had yet to reveal to Aerith. "Do you know how it happened?"

Aerith smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, Yuf, but I can't give you any details. Leon would kill me as it is for telling you the little bit that I am, but you need to know so you can understand him." She stopped for a minute, taking another drink of her tea before she told her the rest. "About three years after his parents died, Leon was engaged to a woman he loved deeply. He would've done anything for her. But, only a month before their wedding, she, too, was killed in a car crash."

"Oh wow..." Yuffie muttered, her eyes wide with shock at the things the woman was telling her.

"That was when he became Leon. Before then, he was still Squall. But after Rinoa died, he just felt like he had lost everything and wanted to start over. He hurried with his studies at school and then moved across town, as far away from Rinoa's memory as he could get. And he changed. He became cold and he refused to let anyone close to him. In fact," she paused and took a deep breath, remembering all the pain her friend had gone through. "The only reason he lets me get close to him is because I make him. I don't give him a choice."

* * *

At around eleven o'clock that night, Yuffie finally stumbled through Leon's apartment door, her arms loaded down with bags upon bags of clothing, shoes, and other necessities Aerith had insisted that she needed. She noticed that Leon simply turned to glace at her from his seat on the couch before going back to watching the action movie playing on the TV. Sighing, Yuffie simply carried her bags to her room and threw them on the bed, returning to the living room and sitting on the smaller sofa opposite Leon.

She watched the movie for a few minutes, finding herself to be completely unable to follow the plot since she had missed the first half of the movie. So, deciding that _trying_ to watch it was a complete waste of her time, she instead decided to watch her host for a few minutes. He really wasn't paying much attention to anything but the movie, and she found herself able to stare at him without him glaring back at her.

Finally, she yawned, the day's activities catching up to her and she found herself to be completely exhausted. About to go to bed, she realized there was one other thing she needed to do before she did settle in for the night. So, rising from her seat, she stepped across to Leon and stood in front of him, waiting for his attention to turn to her.

When it did, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Um... Squa-, Leon?" she began, avoiding eye contact with him. "Thank you for letting me stay here. And... I'm sorry." The last part came out so quietly and he wasn't saying anything, that she initially believed he hadn't heard her and she prepared herself to say it once more.

But, Leon gave her a small smile and nodded. "Don't worry about it. I guess I was a little out of line yesterday," he admitted softly, watching the girl fidget nervously in front of him.

Yuffie gave him her own smile, stifling the urge to yawn again. "That's okay. I shouldn't have been so defensive about it." She turned and started walking towards the hallway, pausing at the entrance. "Goodnight Leon," she called over her shoulder.

"Goodnight Yuffie."

* * *

_Author's Note: That's the longest chapter yet. And it was mainly all shopping! Anyways, I needed to get a lot of things done in this chapter and I did it. Of course, I had made a pact with myself to not stop writing until I did all that I intended to with this chapter. Okay, I'll shut up. Go review for me please._


	8. Chapter Eight: Rough Seas

_Author's Note: Quick advertisement for myself. I wrote an extremely strange one-shot this morning and posted it. Like I said, really weird. But, if you want to read it, it's called "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream."_

_Note to l.a.: You wanted to know some other good authors, right? Do you mean Squffie authors? 'Cause those are the ones I mainly know. Anyways, anything by Vulpes Lapis, Pingpong867, ObsidianSorrows, October Breeze, Jupiter Green, Araclyzm, Annjirika, Ellyrianna, Ezri-Candy, QwickSilver, Snowri, Yuffie Kisaragi.... You know what, it might be better if you just go to my profile and check out my favorites page... yeah, that might be better. (And for those of you who I listed.... they're in no particular order... I just wrote them as I remembered names... no preferences whatsoever... and if I didn't list you, your name probably just slipped my mind... I tend to be forgetful.)_

_Note to Lorok: Yes, there is a size zero... not that I'll ever be able to wear it, but it does exist._

_[Disclaimer: I own probably next to nothing in this chapter.]_

* * *

_Chapter Eight: Rough Seas_

__Leon stood in the open doorway of the spare room, the room that Yuffie now occupied. He sighed, pushing his long mahogany hair out of his eyes as he looked at the door in slight confusion, wondering _why_ she had insisted upon leaving the door open night after night. Shaking his head, he turned his eyes to the bed, where Yuffie slept with her back to him. He couldn't help but notice that the blankets were slipping lower down her back while her nightshirt was riding up, revealing both the bare skin of her back and most of the green panties she wore.

It took a moment before Leon realized that he was staring, and when he did, he tiredly rubbed his eyes and moved his vision to her feet, where both cats were curled up. "Yuffie?" he called from the doorway, knocking slightly on the doorframe as he did so and waited for a response. "Yuffie?" he tried again, this time a little louder and still receiving no response from the sleeping girl on the bed.

Seeing no other option, Leon stepped into her room, carefully averting his eyes from her bare back, and walked around the bed so he was in front of her. "Yuffie, c'mon. It's eight o'clock," he told her, reaching out to gently shake her shoulder in an attempt to awaken her.

She shrugged his hand off, rolling over and mumbling something he was unable to decipher, but he was fairly certain it had sounded like "I don't wanna get up." It was either that or "the dogs are winning the cup." Leon decided it was the former, unless she was having some strange dreams.

"Yuffie, it's time to get up," he said, his voice loud, clear, and firm, leaving, he hoped, no room for argument. It was the same voice he used when he was getting onto the cats and it seemed to work with them.

"No it's not," she mumbled, burrowing into the covers and curling up into a ball so that all that was visible was the very top of her head, which was just an ebony spot on the burgundy sheets and comforter.

"Yes. It is," Leon retorted, trying to pull the blankets off her head. "We need to go to the restaurant so I can check and see if things are still going smoothly."

Yuffie pulled the blankets down far enough to glare at him over the top of them. "Then go and I'll just stay here and sleep until you get back," she muttered, wondering why in the world he needed her to go with him to his restaurant.

Leon sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, raising his eyebrows and watching her as she hid once more beneath the blankets. "Yuffie, I'm going to be training you as a waitress this morning as well so you can work the afternoon shift today," he explained slowly, knowing that in her sleepy headed state, it would take a moment for things to sink in.

A loud groan came from the blankets and before Leon could stop it, a pillow came around and walloped him in the face. He stood there shocked for a moment before his eyes landed upon the form completely covered in blankets on the bed, just the arm she had used to hit him with the pillow sticking out. A soft chuckle rumbled through his chest, surprising both himself and Yuffie, who was now carefully peeking out of the blankets. "You aren't mad at me?" she whispered quietly, preparing to duck in case he tried to retaliate.

"No, I'm not mad," Leon replied, walking towards the bedroom door, _her_ bedroom door. He briefly wondered when he had stopped considering this room the spare room and started calling it hers, but he decided not to ponder the issue too long. Instead, he looked back at her over his shoulder, seeing that she was settling into the blankets once more. "Yuffie, you have five minutes or you don't get any breakfast."

At the mention of food, Yuffie leaped out of the bed and began scrambling around the room, not even thinking about the fact that she was half undressed and Leon was still in the room. She turned long enough to see him leaving, shutting the door as he did so and causing her unexplainable fear to set in. "Don't shut the--" she started, then stopped when she noticed that he had just partially shut it for her.

Five minutes later, Yuffie found herself sitting on the kitchen counter and staring glumly at the bowl of wheat bran cereal in her hands. "This isn't breakfast," she muttered, picking some up on her spoon and letting it fall back into the milk. "Hell, this isn't even food. I wouldn't feed this to my worst enemy."

Across the kitchen and sitting on a stool pulled up to the bar, Leon sat calmly eating the same wheat bran cereal and reading the morning paper. "It's that or nothing," he told her, not taking his eyes off the article he was reading.

"When you said 'breakfast,' I naturally assumed bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, French toast, or something like you've been cooking this last week," Yuffie complained, taking a bite of her cereal and grimacing. She quickly grabbed her glass of orange juice to wash the horrid taste out of her mouth. "Not this... this... shit."

"Watch your mouth," Leon automatically called to her, raising his eyes from the paper just long enough to glance at her. Since she had been there, he'd been trying to get her to watch her language as cursing didn't much appeal to him. "And I don't cook a big breakfast on the days I have to work."

Yuffie rolled her eyes and managed to choke down a few more bites of the cereal before her stomach began to retaliate. Pouring it down the garbage disposal, she rinsed out her bowl before grabbing a granola bar out of the cabinet, having decided that it would taste much better than that stuff Leon called cereal. "If I'm gonna have to eat cereal every morning, we're gonna have to buy something with the word 'sugar' or 'frosted' in the name," she grumbled, biting into the granola bar.

A few minutes later, the two of them were walking to the covered garage the apartment building provided for its tenants and Yuffie found herself wondering what type of car Leon drove. Even after being there for a week, she still hadn't seen it and when she had come in here with Aerith the day before, the florist hadn't mentioned which car was Leon's. Yuffie's jaw dropped when she saw which car the man was climbing into. "You drive a Jaguar?!" she asked incredulously, her eyes widening as she circled the black car and stared at the white leather seats.

"Yes, I do. Now get in the car," Leon demanded, having to roll down his window to yell at her. He watched as she very tentatively climbed into the passenger seat, checking the bottoms of her shoes before she pulled them into the car. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want to get this thing dirty or anything. I mean, it's a _Jaguar_!" Yuffie very carefully closed the door, almost afraid to touch anything in the car for fear of breaking something. But then her eyes fell upon the radio which was still turned off. And before Leon could stop her, she had already changed it from his station of classical music to one of those stations that played everything from country music to rock.

Groaning, Leon slowly drove out of the parking garage and turned onto the road, concentrating on his driving so he didn't have to listen to her choice of music. He continued driving, keeping his eyes on the road until he felt his passenger staring at him. "What?" he asked, turning to her as he stopped at a red light.

"You have a Jaguar and you drive like an old woman," Yuffie complained, drumming her fingers on the dashboard in time to the music. "I really expected more from you, Squall."

Ignoring her first comment and deciding that he would not divulge his past to this teenager, Leon focused on her second instead. "It's Leon," he said coldly, his eyes already back on the road and waiting for the light to turn green.

"Sorry, it just slipped," Yuffie muttered apologetically, staring out the passenger side window at the people milling on the streets. A glimpse of a homeless man wandering around reminded her that if it hadn't been for Leon, she would still be out there. Feeling a sense of gratitude, she decided she would try and be more gracious towards him and less like the annoyance she knew she was. "So, have you owned the restaurant long?"

There was a long silence and Yuffie soon believed that Leon either hadn't heard her question or chose to ignore it. And in case it were the latter, she decided not to repeat it for fear of making him mad. But his baritone voice interrupted her thoughts, causing her to turn to look at him as he spoke.

"I've had it for about seven years now," he finally answered, turning into the parking lot of his restaurant, The Rustic Oven. "My parents... I inherited it from them when they died. But I had always known that I would take over eventually. It just came as a shock that it would be while I was so young." He paused, killing the engine of his car and just sat there in the parking lot with Yuffie, hunched over the steering wheel with his head resting atop it. "I was only nineteen and a freshmen at the university and then _BAM_! Here I am, the owner of a restaurant. I wasn't ready for it and it took a lot out of me to handle both this and finish school."

His young passenger twisted around so she was facing him and tentatively reached a hand out, placing it on his shoulders to comfort him. But, feeling him tense up immediately at her touch, she drew her hand back and looked down at the floorboard. "I'm sorry, Leon. It must've been really hard on you," she whispered quietly, have afraid he would yell at her. "But look how far you've come. I mean, twenty-six years old and you own a Jaguar! That's gotta be something considering that most people who own jags are _ancient_."

Nodding, Leon raised his head from the steering wheel and stared blankly out the front windshield. He let out a deep sigh, pushing his emotions back behind his wall once more before he stepped out into the brisk October morning air. He waited for Yuffie to follow him before locking and setting the alarm on his car with the remote. "Come on," he called, cocking his head to the side, "the employee entrance is back here."

Yuffie followed him through the door and found herself in a huge kitchen, the walls permeated with the scents of the many dinners cooked there. She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes to better savor the smells, surprised that the place could smell so good when nothing was even cooking. "Leon, I already love this place," she muttered, taking another deep breath of various scents. "It smells like your kitchen at the apartment."

Silently laughing at her, he stood off to the side, smelling the air himself. "It smells like home," he said, elaborating when she gave him a curious look. "My mother used to be the main chef here and she would cook the same meals at home. Not that I was a mama's boy or anything..." he said in his defense. Leon brushed past her and beckoned him to follow her into the small office located off the kitchen. He gestured towards the seat in front of his desk and handed her a form and a pen. "I need you to fill that out so you _can_ work here." At her questioning glance, he elaborated. "I need it for filing information and government stuff and such."

"Okay, whatever you say boss," Yuffie replied, grinning as she stared down at the form. While Leon was going over various receipts and placing supply orders, Yuffie happily filled out the paper, but frowned when she came to the next box. "Uh... Leon... I don't have a social security card."

"Just put your number in for now and we'll get you a copy of your card later," he muttered, not even raising his eyes from the papers he was going over.

"That's the problem... I don't _know_ my social security number." She glanced up at him and watched as he lowered the paper he was holding to his desk and wearily rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry," she whimpered softly.

Shaking his head, he rested it upon his hands with his elbows propped on the desktop. "Just fill out the rest and I'll have to pay you under the table for now," he finally said, rubbing the back of his neck. "And we'll go about getting your social security card tomorrow."

Yuffie's eyes widened in shock at the mention of pay. "I'm getting _paid_ to work here?" she asked disbelievingly, staring at him intently as though waiting for him to tell her it had only been a joke. But, instead he distractedly nodded. "I thought I was just working here for room and board?"

"No, Yuffie. You'll be making the same amount as the other waiters and waitresses. Room and board doesn't cost that much, so don't worry about it." He stood up, walking to the office door and calling over his shoulder, "I've got some things to check on. I'll be right back."

* * *

A few hours later, Yuffie was introduced to three of Leon's younger employees: a red-headed sixteen year old waitress named Kairi, the spikey-haired and also sixteen year old brunet dishwasher Sora, and a silver-haired seventeen year old host Riku. Kairi later divulged that Sora used to be a waiter, but he kept spilling things on people's laps and was demoted to busboy. And _then_, as a busboy, he kept breaking the dishes and Leon had to further demote him to dishwasher, deeming both the customers and the dishes to be much safer if Sora was working behind the scenes.

Leon had explained to Kairi that Yuffie was to be the new waitress and had the red-head find a uniform for her and begin her training since he, himself, would be busy in the kitchen and office today. All smiles, Kairi impatiently and excitedly tugged on Yuffie's arm, dragging her to where they kept the spare uniforms.

Pulling the smallest pair of black pants and the smallest white blouse she could find off the hangers, Kairi held them out towards Yuffie. "Here, these might work," she told her, trying to judge if they would be small enough. "And if they're too big, Leon will order some new ones for you."

Yuffie took the clothes out of the girl's hands, careful not to wrinkle them as she entered the bathroom. "These should work fine, Kairi," she reassured through the bathroom door as she pulled the pants on and found out they were, indeed, too big for her. "At least, they would work if I had a belt."

"I have an idea," Kairi called through the door as she walked past it and towards the kitchen. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," Yuffie sighed as she pulled on the white blouse, finding it to be too big as well. But, at least she was able to keep it on her shoulders. Her pants, on the other hand, kept slipping over her hips and trying to fall to her ankles. She stepped out of the bathroom just as Kairi returned to the room, a roll of butcher's twine and a pair of scissors in her hands.

"We'll make a belt for you for today. Tomorrow you can bring one from home," the red-head explained, cutting off a length of string and pulling it through Yuffie's belt loops. She tightened the string and tied a quick knot, tugging on it to reassure herself that it would keep her pants up. "There."

Yuffie looked down at her improvised belt and experimentally tugged on her pants to see if they would stay up, which they did. "Yep... it works... now I'll just have to figure out how to untie that knot you made to go to the bathroom..." she trailed off, staring at the messy and tangled knot Kairi had made.

The red-head giggled, putting her hands behind her back. "I guess you'll have to take a pair of scissors with you," she said, turning and reaching into a cabinet to pull out a long red apron. "And don't forget this." As she handed it to her, she tied her own around her waist.

Raising her eyebrows, Yuffie stared at the apron in her hand for a moment before putting it on. "Colorful," she muttered, looking down at the splash of red that contrasted with her black pants and white shirt. She noticed Kairi rolling up her sleeves, so she did the same. "So... what now?"

"Now, I show you where all the tables are and what their numbers are before the customers start filing in."

* * *

At the dinner rush, Yuffie found herself seemingly pulled in five directions at once as she rushed around trying to take orders and serve food at the same time. Of course, Kairi did come to relieve her occasionally, or take on another table when Riku had seated yet another party in her area. And, after Yuffie spilled a whole pitcher of iced tea down a woman's cleavage, Kairi had taken over that table as well.

Finally taking her break, she retreated to the kitchen where Sora was diligently washing the dishes under the scalding hot spray of water. And at that moment, she was envious of the demoted teenager and would have given her right arm to trade places with him. "Sora, how did you manage to get here again?" she asked hopefully, hoping that she could follow in his footsteps.

"You don't want this job, Yuffie," he told her, still slaving over the hot water and trying not to burn his hands at the same time. "It's too hot in here and you don't get any tips."

"I'm not gonna be getting any tips tonight, anyways," she muttered under her breath as she walked past him and deeper into the kitchen. Once there, she found the other waiters and the cooks brushing past her, giving her glares when she got in the way. She quickly backed out of the there and leaned against the wall, trying to keep herself calm.

"Yuffie! Order up for table seven!" someone called to her as they placed the food on the counter for her to pick up.

It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back as she found herself suddenly unable to cope with all the noise and all that needed to be done. She sank to the floor with her back to the wall, drew her knees up, and started sobbing into them. "I can't do this. I can't do this," she murmured, keeping her face between her knees.

A hand fell upon her shoulder and she looked up to see Leon kneeling next to her. "Come on," he whispered, grasping her firmly by the arms and helping her to her feet. He turned to look over his shoulder and saw Kairi hurrying around the kitchen, grabbing plates. "Kairi, you and Nikki take over Yuffie's tables for the rest of the night." The red-head nodded, grabbing the plates for Yuffie's tables on her way out.

Leon led Yuffie to the office they were in that morning and sat her down in the chair, handing her a cup of water. She took a sip, sputtering as her sobs threatened to choke her. "I... I'm... sorry," she stammered, looking down at the floor. "I... it's just.... there's so many people and so much to do."

"It's okay. Kairi and Nikki will take care of your tables and everything will be okay," he soothed, fighting the urge to brush her tears away. _Where did that come from?_ he wondered to himself as he started to leave the room. "You just stay back here until we close, okay?" He looked over his shoulder to see her nod, then went back into the kitchen.

But, as he tried to cook and oversee what his other chefs were doing, he kept finding Yuffie's tear-stained face blocking his vision. He finally laid the knife he was holding down on the counter and turned to his assistant manager. "Julian, I need you to take over in here and close up for the night," he told the shorter blonde man as he left to go back to Yuffie.

In the office, he found her curled into a ball in the chair and her eyes closed. At first, he thought she was asleep, but when he shut the door behind him, her head jerked up and she stared at him. "I can't go back out there..." she muttered, afraid he was going to make her serve the customers once more.

"I know... I'm taking you home," Leon replied, grabbing the jacket he had discarded earlier. "Go get your stuff and we'll leave." He watched as she scurried to her feet and went to retrieve the clothes she wore earlier.

Yuffie came back a few minutes later, still slightly confused by the actions Leon was taking. "Uh... I'm ready to go," she muttered as she saw him leaning against the wall in the office, apparently deep in thought. She, herself, was deep in thought as well, thinking about how this man was more than she first thought he was. There was much more to him than she could see or understand right now. As they walked out to his car, she continued to ponder this, falling asleep on the ride to his apartment.

* * *

_Author's Note: there it is. going to go post right now. Please review._


	9. Chapter Nine: And So Nature Takes Its C

_Author's Note: Well, I'm starting this chapter sooner than expected because I'm being bribed by the VL with a bishie picture. _

_Hey, everybody! Vulpes Lapis FINALLY updated "How Do I Loathe Thee." Everyone go read and review it! I command it! Mwahahahaha.... :::cough, cough::: I'm okay, really I am._

_[Disclaimer: I haven't owned them for the past eight chapters and I still don't own them in this chapter. Are you starting to see a pattern here?]_

* * *

_Chapter Nine: And So Nature Takes Its Course_

Sunday mornings had been Leon's favorite part of the week for as long as he could remember. Even as a boy, he would wait anxiously for that morning to get there. He even liked it better than Saturday mornings, the day most kids would awaken at sunrise just to sit mindlessly in front of the television set and watch cartoons for hours on end. But, for Leon, Sunday mornings always meant pancakes, waffles, French toast, or whatever other big, special breakfast his mother would make since that was her day off from the restaurant and she had the _time_ to make a big breakfast.

Of course, now that he was older, Sunday simply meant that Leon had the whole day off and to himself. Well, almost to himself. Now that Yuffie was living with him, he wouldn't have _that_ luxury anymore.

Sighing, Leon hauled himself out of his bed and spared a glance at his bedside clock to notice that it was just after ten, as late as he would allow himself to sleep. And even then, it was only on one day of the week. He sleepily shuffled into the bathroom for his morning routine of brushing his teeth and doing something to slightly tame his wild mane of hair.

That done, he returned to his bedroom, staring at the dark green sheets rumpled at the foot of the bed and briefly wondered if he should make the bed. Shaking his head as he left the room, Leon decided that the addition of Yuffie in his home should have no effect on the state of his bed.

Speaking of Yuffie, he had just begun to walk past her room and a movement through the partially open door caught his eye. He turned his head to get a better look and then realized that the movement he saw was her, in only her bra and panties as she rummaged through the closet to find something to wear.

Leon found himself rooted to the spot and unable to take his eyes off her as he took in the pale skin of her slender legs, starting at her feet. His azure vision climbed to her slim waist, no longer having that starved look and then traced up her back to the curve of her breasts as her body turned slightly while she pushed the clothes around in the closet, finally settling on a green flannel shirt. While standing there, he very nearly gave into the urge to approach her while she was still in this half-naked state and let his hands roam over her body, taking her curves in their firm grasp, possessing her.

Seeing that she was about to turn, Leon somehow found the ability to rein in his desires and hurry past her room, shaking his head as he did so to clear the thoughts of her body melded into his from his mind. He reached the living room and walked through it to the kitchen, where he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat at the counter, his head buried in his hands as he tried to rationalize what had just happened to him.

"Biology, Leon," he muttered quietly under his breath, not wanting _anyone_, especially Yuffie, to hear him talking to himself. "It was simple biology. Male sees half-naked female and has the urge to claim her. Dates back to when the first man saw the first woman." He took that first bitter drink of his black coffee, letting the liquid scorch his throat as he continued to think about the actions he almost took. "Just animal instincts."

Rising from the stool he sat upon, he shuffled to the apartment door, opening it to grab the folded newspaper that had been left there hours before. He took another drink of his coffee, nearly choking on it when the vision of Yuffie half-naked danced through his head once more. "It's too early for this," he croaked, carrying both coffee mug and newspaper to the blue recliner in his living room.

"Too early for what?" Yuffie asked cheerily as she popped into the living room and threw herself down upon the couch, lying on her stomach with her chin resting on folded arms. He noticed that she was only wearing that flannel shirt she had pulled out of the closet, which reached about to her mid-thigh. She lifted her legs into the air and swung them up and down, making him notice the gray socks upon them.

For the first time in a very long time, Leon struggled for his words as he looked up from the newspaper and stared her. Finally, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sydney and Demi starting a horrendous fight. "That," he told her, pointing over to the rolling mass of black and white fur that was the two cats.

Laughing, Yuffie jumped up from the couch and picked up the first cat she could out of the fray and sat it down in her lap. "And which one are you?" she cooed, having not yet learned how to tell the two nearly identical cats apart. She scratched behind the cat's ears and under its chin, eliciting loud, rumbling purrs from the animal as she did so.

"That's Sydney. He has a pink nose, remember?" Leon explained for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had been here. "He also has short hair while Demi has long hair." He watched as the cat leaned into her hand as she stroked its back, then settled himself on her lap. It wasn't long after that, that Sydney revealed one of his more _endearing _traits to his new friend.

Yuffie looked down in horror while the cat bit one of the buttons on her shirt and began sucking on it, kneading her upper thighs with his paws at the same time. "Squall! Your cat is sucking on my button!" she squealed as she tried to pry the cat's mouth off the button before he swallowed it.

"Leon," he responded automatically as he tried not to laugh at her panicked expression. "Yeah, that's definitely Sydney. He has a button fetish."

She looked down at the cat again, noticing how its eyes were closing and how its paws continued to knead. Once again, she was glad that Leon had had his cats declawed or else her thighs would be a bloody mess after the cat was done. "So... uh... does this mean he likes me or does he just think I'm sexy?" Yuffie joked as she finally gave into Sydney and quit trying to pull the button out of his mouth.

Leon grunted in reply, not wanting to answer that as the image of her in only her underwear was still imbedded in his mind. Averting his eyes from her, he continued to read the newspaper. "I'll fix pancakes after I finish the paper," he told her after a moment or two of silence.

While Leon was busy reading the newspaper, Yuffie would carefully glance up from the cat on her lap to stare at him. She could only hope he would not notice, but she couldn't help it. There he was, sitting in the recliner in only his black boxers, his chiseled chest just begging her to gaze upon it. Not to mention that little bit of stubble upon his face as he hadn't taken the time to shave that morning.

Overall, Yuffie had to use every ounce of her willpower to keep herself from wandering over to him and running her hands across his chest, just to make sure he was flesh and bone and not some marble statue of a Grecian god. She leaned back against the arm of the sofa, drawing Sydney up onto her stomach. In this position, she could stare at him without fear of him noticing because, from his perspective, it would look as though she were staring at the cat.

Her indigo gaze continued to trace every muscle in his abdomen and chest, starting at the waistband of his boxers and traveling up the six-pack he sported and to the pectoral muscles. Lying there, she began to daydream about what it would be like to be held against a body as firm and muscular as that... not necessarily Leon's, but _some_ body like that. She had to admit, though, Leon did serve as spectacular eye candy. No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than a vibrant red blush crept up her neck and covered her face, causing her to avert her gaze and look elsewhere, no matter how much she enjoyed looking at him.

His sudden movement caught her eye and she saw him rise from his chair, heading for the kitchen with his mug of coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other. He threw the newspaper down upon the counter and pulled a clear glass mixing bowl from the cabinet, along with a wire whisk. Yuffie crept into the kitchen behind him, unintentionally silent. "Need some help?" she asked as Leon began to pour some milk into a measuring cup.

Jumping at her voice, he spilt the milk across the counter top and floor, then turned around to glare at her. "Don't be so quiet!" he reprimanded loudly, sternly, and just a bit coldly, and already grabbing a paper towel to wipe up the mess.

"I... I'm sorry..." Yuffie whispered quietly, wincing at his tone and looking down at the floor. "I really am." She had already done this to him countless times and she tried not to, but old habits die hard.

Leon took a deep breath, trying not to hear the hurt tone in her voice. But it was there, and it was there because of the cold tone in his own voice. "It's okay. You just scared me," he reassured as he cleaned up the spilt milk. "Besides, no use crying over spilt milk," he joked, remembering the old saying.

"Yeah," she said half-heartedly, grabbing another paper towel to finish cleaning up the mess. "So... uh... you need any help or would I just get in the way?"

He nearly told her that she would be in the way, but, realizing that saying that would only hurt her more than the coldness in his voice, he changed his mind. "Can you beat an egg?" he inquired as he cracked an egg into the bowl.

Giving him a genuine smile, she grabbed the bowl and whisk from him. "I just kinda do this, right?" she questioned as she slowly began to drag the whisk through the egg.

Leon raised his eyebrows and stared at her, biting back a chuckle as he did so. "Yes, but at that speed, it'll take you a year to beat them. It's like this." He took the bowl back from her and demonstrated how to do it, beating furiously for a second, then stopping and handing the bowl back to her. "See?"

"Like this?" She tried copying his movements only to find that she was having a harder time than she originally thought she would. So intent upon the task at hand, she didn't realize that he had moved behind her and was reaching around to grasp her hand. "Uh... what are you doing?" she asked nervously, fighting the urge to lean back against him.

"Showing you how to beat an egg," he explained, his mouth dangerously close to her ear and his breath lightly blowing her short hair away from her neck. He turned his attention back to bowl in her hands and guided her arm as he helped her to beat the egg. When the egg turned a pale yellow, Leon quickly stepped away from her before the soft scent of her skin caused him to do something he would later regret. "That's how you beat an egg."

Yuffie bit her lip and tried not to blush, but she could still feel warmth of his body behind her even though he was no longer there. "O-Okay," she stuttered, setting the bowl down on the counter. "What's next?"

Step by step, Leon slowly showed her how to make the pancakes, letting her do it herself with only minimal help from him. And, finally, the pancakes were cooking on the griddle he had pulled out of the closet, albeit, they weren't exactly _round _pancakes. They were shaped more like the images from the inkblot tests psychologists used. But, as Yuffie reminded him, it wasn't what they looked like, but rather what they tasted like. And they tasted just the same as if he had cooked them himself.

While watching Yuffie literally _inhale_ everything edible on the table and barely saving anything for himself, Leon's mind drifted back to the night when she had first picked his pocket. And the self-proclaimed title she had used then came floating across his mind. "Why did you call yourself 'The Great Ninja Yuffie'?" he finally asked when his curiosity got the better of him, a very rare occurrence.

Yuffie opened her mouth to answer him, then remembered that she still had a bite in her mouth, so she quickly swallowed it. "I don't know. I just always thought that I was kind of wily and quick, like a ninja," she paused for a minute, a large grin coming across her face, "plus, I can kick higher than my head."

At that, Leon choked on the bite in his mouth and quickly grabbed his glass of milk to wash it down. He knew she didn't mean anything sexually by that last statement, but with the thoughts of her half-naked having not yet completely left his mind, he couldn't help find it that way. "Is that so?" he finally sputtered out.

"Yeah, you want to see?" she asked suddenly as she set her fork down and began to get up out of her chair. Before he could answer her, Yuffie had already struck her pose and was bringing her leg around to kick. But, not only did she forget that she was still clad in only the flannel shirt, but also in socks which slipped on the tiled floor and made her fall.

Leon watched as she landed with a thud upon the floor and tried not to gawk when he realized that not only did she have the three bottom buttons of her shirt undone, but that it also flipped up when she landed. And that would have been okay, except for the fact that is _revealed her panties, stomach and the bottom of her bra._ Before his eyes began to wander more than they already had, he walked over to her and rearranged her shirt so it covered her. "Are you okay?" he finally asked.

Giggling, Yuffie reached up a hand as though she wanted him to help her up. "Yeah, _I'm_ fine. My butt, on the other hand, is gonna be bruised and stuff though," she laughed, reaching down with her other hand to lightly rub her hip.

Taking her hand, Leon hoisted her to her feet, not realizing how close to him she would be when he did so. But, there she was, standing nearly up against him, her head just below his chin and her eyes looking up at him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and willed himself to step away from her. Being that close messed with his senses. He hadn't felt like that in years. "I need to go take a shower," he mumbled, releasing the hand he didn't know he was still holding and leaving her in the dining room by herself.

Yuffie sighed and looked down at the clothes she wore, deciding that perhaps her kick would have gone off better if she had worn pants and shoes. And then maybe Leon wouldn't have run off like he just did. She figured she was probably a sickening sight to look at with her skinny stick-like arms and legs, not to mention her almost non-existent chest. "Yeah, that's why he ran off," she muttered, beginning to clear the table.

Without even realizing it, so caught up in her own self-defacing thoughts, Yuffie had begun to handwash the dishes, completely disregarding the dishwasher next to the sink. And after the dishes were cleaned, she wandered to her room and put a camisole on beneath her shirt, pulled on a pair of blue jeans, and buttoned the bottom three buttons of her shirt before tucking it in. "At least I look more presentable," she murmured as she looked at herself in the mirror and ran a hand through her tangled hair.

A knock on the door sent her back into the living room and peeking through the peephole, she saw Aerith standing there. She pulled open the door, stepping out of the way and letting the florist come in. "Hey, Aerith," she greeted happily, glad to have someone else to talk to. Sure, it was nice talking with Leon, but just talking to the same person day in and day out became monotonous.

"Yuffie, I know how bored you must get staying here all the time, so I thought you might want to come over to my place and hang out for a while," Aerith said excitedly, waving her hands around in the air as she spoke. "I mean, we could watch chick flicks, pig out, girl talk, whatever..."

Smiling, Yuffie nodded and went down the hall to holler to Leon through the bathroom door that she'd be at Aerith's for most of the day. She barely heard his assent through the door before she went back into the living room and followed Aerith across the hall.

* * *

Around ten o'clock that night, a knock on the door pulled Leon away from the novel he was reading and he answered it to find Aerith standing there and yawning. He looked behind her, expecting to find Yuffie. "What is it, Aerith?" he finally asked when he didn't see Yuffie.

"I need you to come collect your roommate," the florist yawned, already starting back across the hall to her room and beckoning Leon to follow her. "She fell asleep about an hour ago and I just haven't the heart to wake her up."

"So you want _me _to wake her up?" Leon questioned suspiciously as he looked down at the couch where Yuffie was sprawled out with Aerith's dog Iris laying across her stomach.

Rolling her eyes, Aerith gave him a look that said that was the exactly the opposite of what she wanted him to do. "No, I want you to carry her to her bed. If she's falling asleep like this all the time, then she apparently needs to get more sleep. Which means I don't want to wake her up when she _is_ asleep," the florist explained slowly, as though she were speaking to a very young child. That, or a very stupid man.

Giving in to his friend, Leon shooed the dog away from Yuffie, nearly getting bit in the process, then stooped to scoop her up into his arms. She immediately rolled into him and pressed her body against his. Aerith walked with them to his door, holding it open and then shutting it for him after muttering a tired 'goodnight.'

Leon carried her down the hall to her room, trying in vain to ignore the two mounds of flesh that pressed against him. He really didn't need to be thinking like this _again_. Sighing, he lay her on the end of the bed so he could turn her covers down and place her beneath them. But, seeing the flannel shirt still upon her, he worried that she might become overheated during the night. He gently sat her up and began to unbutton her shirt, both relieved and disappointed to find that she now wore a camisole beneath it. He briefly toyed with the idea of taking her pants off as well, but finally decided that would be too much of an invasion of her privacy and left them on her.

After pulling the covers up to her chin, he watched as she snuggled into them and as the two cats immediately jumped onto the bed with her. A brief wave of jealously washed over him at the sight of the two cats as before she came, they would sleep with him. And he was starting to feel a bit lonely.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned to leave her room, nearly shutting her door all the way before he remembered how panicked she became whenever he did that. He made a mental note to ask her about that sometime, curious as to why something as simple as closing a bedroom door would panic someone.

Outside her door, he leaned against the wall and began to wonder what he was going to do if what he called his 'animal instincts' this morning kept acting up. He decided he would simply have to keep a tighter rein of control over himself. That's all there was too it. Control. Controlling himself. Controlling his 'animal instincts.' But what if they were more than simple 'animal instincts'? He chose not to answer that question.

* * *

_Author's Note: Finally got this chapter finished. I've been working on it nearly all day long. I hope you guys like it. Hm... about all Squallie's thoughts about Yuffums... well, if you think I should up the rating, which I don't think is necessary, tell me and I'll do it. But, I think I can get away with it in a PG-13 fic. _

_Anyways, leave me a review and I'll be a happy author. _


	10. Chapter Ten: Implications

_Author's Note: Okay, I'm starting the chapter now, but I really have no clue as to when it'll be finished. I might even put off posting it until Monday. Anyways, I have some reviewers to answer._

_Note to Aoi-butterfly: Yes, I know that _right now_ it seems as though Squall is only interested in Yuffie's outer beauty, but that will change later. I mean, nine times out of ten, lust comes before love. So, just bear with me for now please. Thanks for the review._

_Note to l.a.: Yes, my cat Spaz (Sydney's basis) has a button fetish. As a matter of fact, as I write this, he's sitting in my lap and sucking on a button. He also likes to suck on blankets. _

_Note to Ezri-Candy: Yeah, I had fun writing that chapter with all the nice Squall imagery. :::sigh::: But, you know all about my Squall-obsession._

_[Disclaimer: I own Sydney and Demi. I think that's about it. Well, I own a few random characters that I throw in as I see fit, but they're hardly in here. I _wish_ that I owned Squall...]_

* * *

_Chapter Ten: Implications_

Friday afternoon rolled around and by four o'clock that evening, Yuffie was exhausted. While Leon walked through the doorway of his apartment, she merely stumbled in behind him. Working at _The Rustic Oven_ all week had taken its toll upon her. Even though it hadn't been that busy of a week, she was still adjusting to the whole waitress thing. She threw herself down on the sofa and closed her eyes, thinking back to Monday morning when Leon had awakened her that morning with the news that she would be going back to work that day.

At first, she had panicked, her grip on the blanket as she lay in bed tightening until her knuckles turned white. Remembering what had happened on Saturday, her first day, she found her breath beginning to come in short gasps. And just as she was about to tell him that she couldn't go back there, that she would break down if she had to, he had apparently noticed her near anxiety attack and sat on the edge of her bed.

He had slowly explained to her that it was his fault that she had had so much trouble on her first day there since it _was_ Saturday, the busiest day of the week for his restaurant. Very calmly, he informed her that for most of the week, the main business of _The Rustic Oven_ was simply a buffet style dinner, where the only thing the waiters and waitresses had to do was mainly take orders for drinks. Well, that and the occasional dinner order when a customer would rather not eat the buffet.

Finally, Yuffie had decided to give it another try and hesitantly returned to the restaurant with him that morning. She was still half-afraid that she would find that he had been lying to her about it just to get her to agree to come back. But, she found that he was, indeed, telling the truth. And she made it through that first day of the week without spilling anything on anybody.

The rest of the week had gone smoothly as well, but on Friday morning, Leon had told her that she would only be working until around two o'clock since it started to become busier after that with all the Friday night dates. And, true to his word, at two o'clock precisely, Leon had called her off the floor and had one of the others take over the few tables she still had. But, surprisingly, instead of just sending her home in a cab, he had taken the rest of the day off as well, claiming that they needed to stop for groceries anyways.

So, now at around four o'clock, she was sitting on the couch while Leon put away the groceries in the kitchen. She turned her head to the side and stared at him, feeling a sudden wave of gratitude wash over her. Not only did this man take her in off the streets and give her a job, but he was also making sure this job didn't stress her out too much.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was in the kitchen and standing in front of Leon with a small smile on her face. "Squa- er, I mean, Leon, I just wanted to say thank you for making me go back to work this week," she said nervously, moving from foot to foot while she looked down at the floor. She slowly raised her eyes and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him in a light hug.

Leon stood there shocked for a moment, feeling her small body pressed up against his and her arms around his waist. It took nearly a full minute before he lifted his arms and placed them around her, hugging her back. It had been so long since he had actually hugged someone, actually wanted to hug someone. But, here he was, standing in his kitchen with this girl holding onto him. "You're welcome," he murmured as he slowly drew away from her, dropping his arms back to his sides.

Together, they finished putting away the groceries, nearly tripping over the cats as Sydney chased Demi through the kitchen, across the living room, and then down the hall. "I don't see how she puts up with him," Yuffie muttered as she pulled open the bag of potato chips she was supposed to be putting away and began munching on them.

"That's because you haven't known them for as long as I have," Leon replied as he took the chips away from her and closed the bag, much to her disappointment. "And they'll make up later. They always do." He sighed and gave in when Yuffie grabbed the bag of chips back from him. "And how much can you _eat_?!"

"I dunno... I just eat until I'm not hungry anymore," she muttered around a mouthful of chips as she carried the bag into the living room and sat back down on the sofa. Grabbing the remote she began flipping through the channels, about to settle on a cartoon when Leon stopped her as she passed by CNN. She let out a soft groan then tossed the remote over to him, trying to watch the news and not fall asleep at the same time.

After a few minutes of the news, Leon looked over at his roommate, who was simply staring off into space and mindlessly eating her chips. He watched as she got up suddenly and walked over to his bookcase, running her finger along the book spines but not taking anything down. She sighed loudly then plopped back down on the sofa, grabbing that morning's paper which had been carelessly tossed onto the coffee table when he had finished with it. Spending a few minutes flipping through it, she laid it back down and leaned against the arm of the sofa, her hands folded atop her stomach and her eyes closed. "Restless, are we?" he chided as she jerked herself onto her side and stared at the TV.

"No, I'm just bo–," she stopped short, cutting her words off as she realized what she was about to say, that she was bored. But she wondered if perhaps it would be seen as ingratitude if she _did_ say that she was bored. Would he think her constantly needing entertainment? "No, I'm fine," she finally said as she tried to find interest in the anchorman's dry voice or the various weather patterns of the area that the weatherman was explaining.

"Yuffie, it's okay if you're bored," Leon told her when he realized what she had really wanted to say. He tossed the remote back over to her, getting up as he did so and grabbing a random book from the bookcase. "You don't have to lie about not being bored. I know that there's not much to do around here. I even get bored here sometimes."

For a few minutes, both of them sat there in silence while Yuffie flipped endlessly through the channels. But, when she started through them for the third time and _still_ hadn't found anything to watch, Leon put his book down and left the apartment, crossing the hall to Aerith's. He knocked lightly on her door, then waited patiently for her to answer it. When she didn't answer, he knocked again, louder this time. Just when he had given up and was about to leave, the door swung open, revealing an annoyed looking Aerith with the phone in one hand and her other hand covering the mouthpiece.

"What?" she asked in exasperation, surprising Leon by her tone of voice. In all the years he had known her, it was very rare that she would be anything _but_ sweet and kind. He had never seen this side of her.

"Uh... Yuffie's bored and I was wondering what I should do about it..." he stammered, finding himself at a loss for words when faced with this Aerith.

Groaning, Aerith threw back her head and rubbed her forehead with the hand that had been covering the mouthpiece. "Leon, I am in the middle of a _very _dirty phone call with my husband. Please do not interrupt me," she muttered, bringing her head back around to stare at him. "Look... I don't know. Take her to the movies or something!"

Before Leon had a chance to say anything, Aerith had slammed the door in his face while he simply stood there in shock. Not _only_ was she being rude to Leon, but she was also having a dirty phone conversation with her husband? This was completely out of character for the Aerith that Leon knew and the poor man was at a complete loss for words.

He wordlessly entered his own apartment, shutting the door and leaning against it for a moment before pushing off it and walking over to the couch. Placing his hands on the back of it, he leaned over it to stare down at Yuffie, who was lying on her side and watching a cooking show. To him, she still looked tremendously bored. Sighing, he decided that perhaps Aerith had the right idea. "Come on," he finally said, getting her immediate attention. "Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" Yuffie asked as she sat up and stared at him, running a hand through her short hair to help with the loose tangles.

Leon picked up the paper, flipping it to the movie section and began reading the different movies and times to himself. "I thought we'd go see a movie or something," he muttered, his brows furrowed as he glanced once more at the movies listed. "That is, if it's okay with you..."

"Yeah, I'd love to go... I mean, I haven't been to one since _Beauty and the Beast_ came out," she explained, reaching down to pick up the sneakers she had discarded earlier and pull them onto her feet. She felt Leon staring at her, so she turned around and gave him a questioning glance. "What?"

"Yuffie, _Beauty and the Beast _came out about ten or eleven years ago," he said in disbelief, slowly setting the newspaper down upon the back of the couch as he continued to stare at her.

She nodded, going back to putting her shoes on and tying the laces. "Yeah, I know. I think that was foster family number three...," she paused, dropping her foot to the floor and putting her finger on her mouth while she thought about it. "Or was it number four? No, it was number three because it was the Rosenbaum's and their two oldest daughters took me... Yeah, that's right."

Slowly shaking his head while she continued to ruminate on whether it was foster family three or four, Leon picked up the paper and glanced back down at the movie times again. "So, what kind of movie do you want to see?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow as he looked back down at her.

"Whatever you want to see," she replied, standing up and starting back towards her bedroom to run a brush through her hair, but she stopped at the hall entrance. "I mean, this was your idea after all and I have no clue what's playing and stuff... So, just pick whatever you want to see. I'm not picky about it."

Leon watched as she ran down the hall, trying to decide if it would be better to take her to the horror movie or the romantic comedy showing. But, considering the way his thoughts had been going concerning the teenager lately, he finally decided that it would be best to _not_ see anything with romantic undertones.

Just as he picked a movie and showing, Yuffie walked back into the room, obviously ready to go as she looked like she was only waiting for him. "Is _The Others_ alright with you?" he asked, wanting to make sure it would be okay with her.

"I told you, whatever you want to see is fine with me," she told him as she bent over and picked up the cat wandering around her feet. "And, Demi, I expect you to keep Sydney in line while we're gone, okay? Don't let him boss you around anymore. You deserve better than that," she whispered to the cat, rubbing her behind her ears and receiving loud purrs in reply. She sat the cat back down on the floor, looking up at Leon as she did so. "So, are you ready to go?"

He nodded and grabbed his jacket, but stopped when he realized that Yuffie didn't have one of her own. So, he handed her his black leather jacket, this one with long sleeves, and pulled out an older blue jean jacket for himself. "While we're out, we're going to get you a coat and jacket," he told her as he pulled his on.

"You don't–," Yuffie started to protest, giving up when she saw the stern look on his face that left no room for argument. "I'm fine without one, you know. Just a couple of sweatshirts and I'll be plenty warm."

Sighing, Leon opened the apartment door and ushered her out, making sure to lock the door behind them. "Yuffie, a couple of sweatshirts aren't going to be fine when it gets to be the dead of winter," he muttered as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I just hate that you're spending so much money on me when I'm not really doing anything in return," she mumbled as she followed him to the parking garage. "I mean, you won't even let me pay you for room and board now that I'm actually _getting _a paycheck."

Leon stopped walking and turned to look at her, placing his hands on her shoulders as he did so. "Would you feel better if I started giving you a list of chores or something to do around the apartment?" he asked seriously as he stared into her indigo eyes.

"Actually, yeah, I would. I would actually feel like I'm good for _something_ and not just a worthless street rat," she answered in all honesty as it was the way she had felt for most of her life, even _before_ she ran away from her last foster family. From almost as far back as she could remember, she always had this sense of worthlessness about her, as if she could do nothing right.

"Yuffie, you aren't worthless," Leon sighed, taking his hands off her shoulders before they pulled her to him in an embrace... something he had been fighting all week long. "You just haven't found your place yet."

Looking down at the floor, the teenager struggled with her words for a moment before she looked back up to Leon. "Um... could you help me find my place?" she asked nervously, her eyes moving from his to look at the wall.

"Yes, Yuffie. I'll help you find your place," he whispered, wondering for the umpteenth time why he was committing so much time and energy to helping this girl.

* * *

The movie theater _The Others_ was showing in happened to be located within the same mall that Aerith had taken Yuffie the week before. They arrived with plenty of time to buy her coat and jacket before the movie would start, which they had already done. And, now, Leon was standing in front of a store window as he waited for Yuffie, who had told him in no uncertain terms that if she didn't find a restroom soon, her bladder would explode.

The window he was looking into belonged to a small eccentric type store, one of those places that you could find the strangest things from anything to everything. He looked down at his watch, wondering what was taking Yuffie so long when she was just suddenly standing there beside him, having, once again, made no noise when she approached him. And, per usual, Leon jumped in surprise. "That's it!" he exclaimed, grabbing her arm and dragging her into the store. "We're getting you something to wear so you'll make noise when you walk."

At first, Yuffie had thought he was angry with her, but then she noticed the small smile on his face and realized that he wasn't after all. "Honestly, I don't do it on purpose," she explained, pulling out of his grasp to look around the store, eyes widening at all the various knick-knacks, throw pillows, and scarves, among other things.

"I know you don't and that's why we're getting you this," he told her, holding up a green scarf with small brass disks sewed around the edge. He gently shook it, making the disks bump into each other and make a soft tinkling noise. "See? You won't be able to sneak up on me anymore."

Yuffie reached out and carefully took it from his hands, folding it into a triangle and then wrapping it around her waist to see if it was big enough. "Yeah, this will work," she muttered to herself, unwrapping it from around her and handing it back to Leon.

Walking to the back of the store, they handed the scarf to the cashier, who kept glancing back and forth between Yuffie and Leon. After ringing up the purchase, he started to put it into a bag, but was stopped when Leon told him not to and handed it to Yuffie after pulling the tag off of it. "Here, put it on so you can't sneak up on my anymore tonight, either," he insisted as he counted out the cash for their purchase.

Just as they were leaving the store and had reached the exit, the voice of the cashier floated to their ears and stopped Leon in his tracks. "I swear, these pimps keep hooking younger and younger ones!" the middle-aged cashier had muttered, believing that they were too far away to hear him.

Standing beside Leon, Yuffie felt him visibly stiffen, and just as he was about to turn and re-enter the store, she stopped him by gingerly putting a hand on his arm. "Squall, just ignore him. I'm used to being called a lot worse than that," she whispered, gently pulling him back into the mall.

"But he just _implied_ that you're–," Leon started but was interrupted by Yuffie.

"Yes, Squall, I know what he was just implying and I'm telling you, I'm used to it. I've heard it for years now. It's okay," she reassured, her hand still on his arm as she tugged him in the direction she believed the movie theater to be. "Let's just go see the movie."

Sighing, Leon gave in to her and allowed himself to be pulled away from the store. After a minute or two, he finally realized that she had called him 'Squall' instead of 'Leon' and he briefly wondered if he should correct her. But, he decided that since the moment had passed, he would let her slip-up stand this time. "Alright," he finally muttered.

They continued to walk the length of the mall, coming across the movie theater at the very end and immediately got into line. Looking around, Leon noticed all the couples that apparently on dates as they had their arms around each other and stealing kisses while they waited to buy their tickets. He suddenly became very aware of the fact that Yuffie's hand was still holding onto his arm and he very carefully pulled it out of her grasp, using that hand to pull his wallet out so she wouldn't be offended.

The line moved quickly and it wasn't long before Leon had purchased their ticket, drinks, and a large bucket of popcorn that Yuffie had insisted on and then led her through the complex to the theater their movie was showing in. Seeing that there were few people in the theater to see this particular movie as it had been out for awhile, they had their choice of seats and Leon allowed Yuffie to chose since this was a relatively new experience for her. She chose the back row as it was close to the door. Wanting to be near an exit in case she had to make a break for it was a hard habit for her to break.

After sitting down, Leon, out of habit, put his arm around the back of Yuffie's chair, being careful to keep it on the chair and not on her. The previews passed quickly and the movie soon started, the popcorn already being half gone as Yuffie had been constantly munching on it since he had bought it. Leon, himself, had only taken a few bites of it.

It wasn't long before the first scary scene of the movie began, and Yuffie, unused to the tension that came with these movies, instinctually hid her head in Leon's chest and griped his jacket. "Tell me when it's over," she muttered as she took another peek at the screen and then quickly hid her eyes once more.

Trying not to laugh, Leon brought his arm down from the back of her seat and gently lowered it onto her back, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "I didn't think you'd get scared so easily," he whispered jokingly as he lowered his head closer to her ear, not wanting his voice to carry over to the few other movie-goers in the theater.

Yuffie peeked out from his jacket long enough to give him a mock glare and take a glance at the movie screen. "Yeah, well I'm not used to this stuff, you know," she muttered, hiding her head once more. But, she noticed that the feel of his arm on her back seemed to have helped calm her down, making her feel strangely relaxed.

"Okay, it's over," Leon whispered after the scene had finished and it moved on to the next part of the movie. Yet, even after she had removed her head from his chest and was sitting against the back of her seat once more, he kept his arm around her and was still giving her shoulder small squeezes occasionally.

As the movie progressed and the scary scenes multiplied, Yuffie found herself hiding her head more and more often in Leon's chest. Finally, she succumbed to the temptation and left her head resting against it, only having to turn it slightly when she was scared. But, with his arm still resting around her, she became scared less easier and really didn't need to hide her head as often. She just _wanted _to keep her head there and, since he didn't seem to be objecting, she did leave it there.

The movie ended and the credits rolled past, but Yuffie and Leon were still sitting there, her head still resting on his chest and his arm still around her. But, when the ushers came in to clean up the mess left behind, she lifted her head and stood up, stretching as she did so. "Thank you, Squall. It's been so long since I've actually seen a movie and I really had a lot of fun," she told him as she waited for him to get up as well.

"Leon," he corrected automatically, knowing even as he did so, it was useless. He started towards the exit, then stopped and turned to her. "You want to get a hamburger or something before we head back?"

Forgetting about the huge bucket of popcorn she had just finished off, Yuffie nodded enthusiastically. "I'd love to!" she exclaimed, bounding up the aisle and beating him to the door. "I am absolutely _starved_!"

Leon followed her out of the theater, wondering the whole time how anyone as tiny as her could eat so much food in such a short period of time. "How did I know you were going to say that?" he muttered sarcastically as he they headed back into the mall and towards the parking lot exit.

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, here it is. Hope you like it. Review for me please? And, yes, I know. The Others came out a few years ago, but just pretend it's a recent movie._


	11. Chapter Eleven: Darkest Before the Dawn

_Author's Note: The VL got me all pumped up to start this chapter about five minutes after I posted the last one. :::sigh::: Therefore, I have to write. :-) And this might be a looong chapter because I have some things that I am DETERMINED to put in it._

_ADVERTISEMENTS: _

_--QwickSilver has finally updated "Life, or Something Like It." Very good Squffie... yes, one of the first that I read when I came here. So, I command thee to read and review it after you're done here. :)_

_--And Vulpes Lapis put up another new chapter of "How Do I Loathe Thee." Yet another very good Squffie and another of the first that I read here. And VL's really on a roll. I mean, she put up a chapter last week and then another this week. Maybe if we give her enough reviews, we can get her to hurry up and finish it. :::crosses fingers::: So, go read and review that one for me, too, please._

_–There's lots more, but I don't have the time to go through and look at them all. So, to save time, I'll just tell you to check out my favorites page to find lots of Squffies and Yuffentines._

_Disclaimer: Let's see... this is the eleventh chapter and I have yet to own most of the characters. Actually, there's only ONE character that I would like to own and I think most of you know me well enough to know who I'm talking about, right?_

* * *

_Chapter Eleven:_ _Darkest Before the Dawn_

The morning sun shining across the room and falling upon her face caused Yuffie to wrinkle her nose in distaste and roll over, taking her face out of the offending sunlight. But, the room continued to grow brighter and the insistent 'meow' coming from her pillow forced her to slowly open her eyes to find Demi sitting near her head and demanding attention. Tiredly pulling her hand out from beneath her blankets, Yuffie reached out and began to stroke the cat, trying to go back to sleep at the same time.

But, a glance at the clock on her bedside table, which revealed it to be just after eleven o'clock, prevented sleep from reclaiming her. She jerked straight up in the bed, looking confusedly around the room as she ran a hand through her short ebony locks and ignored the affectionate feline who had begun to purr loudly in the hopes that she would receive more attention. "Okay... why didn't Squall wake me up for work?" Yuffie wondered aloud, looking down at the bed when Demi rubbed up against her.

Clad in her nightgown of choice, a long blue flannel shirt she had taken from Leon's closet the week before and a pair of grey socks, Yuffie wandered into the kitchen. A sheet of paper stuck to the refrigerator caught her eye as it was usually bare of anything but a few magnetic clips. Her eyes ran across the page, reading the note left in Leon's smooth handwriting.

_Yuffie,_

_Since it's Saturday, you're getting the day off. I'll be at the restaurant until after ten o'clock. Make yourself at home... just don't break anything. And unless you call and tell me otherwise, I'll be bringing home Chinese for a late dinner._

_Leon._

After reading the note, Yuffie looked down at the two cats sitting at her feet. "I guess it's just us three today," she told them, sticking the note back on the refrigerator. Just as she was about to leave the kitchen and get dressed, an almost evil glint came into her eye. "Yeah... just us three..." she muttered thoughtfully before backing up against the cabinet and running towards the opposite wall, sliding across the rest of the tiled floor when she was halfway there.

The teenager continued to slide across the floor, going farther and farther each time, until she finally hit the wall face first and fell onto her backside with the last slide. The whole time, both Sydney and Demi sat in place, their heads turning in synchrony to follow her movements across the floor. "I'm okay," Yuffie mumbled as she climbed to her feet, gingerly rubbing her now bruised hip.

"Okay... now what?" she asked the cats, who continued to stare at her as though she were insane. "And don't look at me like that. Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean I'm crazy." Yuffie thought about what she had just said, beginning to shake her head slowly while running a hand down her face. "Okay, so maybe I _am_ crazy for talking to you two."

An answering meow came from Sydney, making her wonder if he was agreeing or disagreeing with her until she noticed that both their food bowls were empty. "Hungry, are you?" she questioned the black and white cat as she rummaged around in the pantry, looking for the cat food Leon had showed her just the last week. She finally found the bag and filled both bowls with the cat food, almost laughing when both cats attacked the food with vigor. "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry, too," Yuffie admitted when her stomach let out a long, rumbling growl.

Pulling open the refrigerator door, Yuffie stared into its contents, not finding anything that really appealed to her at the moment. She stood in front of the open door, shivering slightly as the cold air moved across her skin, while she thought about what she _really_ wanted for breakfast this morning... or lunch, really, considering that it was nearly noon by now.

Waffles. She wanted waffles. Just last week, she had watched Leon make waffles one morning and he seemed to have no trouble at all doing it. So, thinking to herself, Yuffie decided that she, too, could manage to make waffles. After all, how hard could it be? Trying to remember what all Leon had put into them, she pulled out the carton of milk and a few eggs before moving over to the pantry where he kept the flour and other dry goods.

Half an hour later, the teenager stood in front of the waffle iron and impatiently waited for the first waffles to be done. She wasn't sure exactly how long they should cook as she didn't have a recipe, which had made making the waffle batter an experiment for her. But, she was confident that she had made them pretty much the same way as Leon had. And slight differences in the recipes shouldn't matter. Or so she thought.

Experimentally lifting the top of the waffle iron to check on her waffles, Yuffie was devastated to find that the waffle had stuck to both the top and the bottom of the iron. She let out a loud groan before scraping that waffle up off the iron and suddenly remembered seeing Leon spray some oil onto the iron before he placed the batter within. So, rummaging around in the cabinets until she found the can of oil spray, she quickly sprayed both sides of the iron and poured more batter onto it.

This time, as soon as she closed the iron, batter oozed out of both sides and onto the counter. "Oops..." she giggled slightly, still anticipating the syrupy goodness of the waffles to come. A few minutes later, she lifted the top, relieved to find that the waffle did not stick this time and came up easily when she pulled it out and lay it upon a plate. Not even putting the batter in for the next waffle, Yuffie poured a lake of syrup on and around her waffle before hungrily digging in.

Her first reaction to the waffle was to gag; her second, to make a mad dash to the trash can and spit it out. "Okay... that's _so_ much harder than Squall made it look," she muttered to herself as she poured herself a glass of water to rinse her mouth out with. The bitter taste of her homemade waffle was still lingering in her mouth, threatening to make her gag once more. Sighing, she decided that perhaps it might be better to eat cold cereal instead. _At least, _she thought to herself, _I made him get something sugary._

After finishing off her second bowl of the sugar-laden cereal, Yuffie looked down at her flannel shirt and realized that she had both flour and waffle batter in large splotches. She quirked an eyebrow, pulling the shirt out to get a better look at it and decided she might better change clothes before she got the batter on Leon's furniture.

Emerging from her room a few minutes later in clean clothes and the batter splashed flannel shirt in her hands, Yuffie decided she might better talk to Aerith and find out whether or not it would stain. She, herself, had no idea what all would stain and what wouldn't, and since this _was _technically still Leon's shirt, she didn't want to upset him by putting a permanent stain in it.

So, blue flannel shirt in hand, Yuffie left the apartment and crossed the hall to Aerith's, knocking softly at her door. There was no answer. There wasn't even a resounding bark from her dog Iris. Realizing that the florist wasn't home, the teenager let out a deflated sigh and slowly trudged back across the hall to Leon's apartment only to find that when the door had shut, it had inadvertently locked as well. And Leon had yet to give her a key to the apartment.

"Perfect," Yuffie muttered, leaning against the wall and slowly sliding down it until she was sitting flat on the floor, her legs stretched out in front of her. She would have tried going down to the apartment manager's office to have them let her in, but as Leon hadn't introduced her to them, she knew they would never believe her story. Especially considering how cold and distant Leon appeared to everyone. No one would believe that he would take someone like her in.

But, thinking back to the last few weeks she had spent with him, she realized he wasn't really so cold after all. He liked to act like he was, but when it came down to it, he was actually very kind. After all, he was taking a chance by letting her, a known pickpocket, not only live with him, but also work at his restaurant, where she could easily access the cash registers. And he was trusting her enough to let her stay here by herself when she could easily rob him blind. Not that she would, but she could.

No, Leon wasn't all that cold after all. Especially after the way he had acted the night before when they had gone to the movies. He had not objected at all to Yuffie hiding her head in his chest and, after the first few times, actually leaving her head there for the rest of the movie. Not only that, but he also had put his arm around her. _Not that he meant anything by it, _Yuffie insisted to herself.

While lost in the ruminations of the enigma that was Leon, Yuffie didn't notice when Aerith walked up until her small papillon Iris jumped into the teenager's lap and began licking her face. "Ack! Not on the mouth! Not on the mouth!" Yuffie screeched as she gently pushed the dog away from her and looked up at Aerith.

"What are you doing out here, Yuffie?" the florist asked concernedly, tugging on Iris's leash to make the dog behave. She leaned her side against Leon's door while looking down at the girl at her feet.

Laughing nervously, Yuffie jumped to her feet and hesitantly smiled. "Well, you see... I was coming over to ask you if you thought this would stain or not and I kinda sorta got locked out," she explained as she held the flannel shirt out to Aerith, unfolding it enough to show her the large batter splotches on it.

Switching the dog leash to her other hand, and barking out a quick 'sit' to Iris, the florist wrinkled her brow and stared at the stain. "How did you do this?"

Nervous laughter once again struck the teenager, causing her to bite her lip. "I was trying to make waffles and I kinda got it everywhere," she muttered quietly, eyes darting back and forth. "And I really need to get back into the apartment to clean up the mess before Squa-er, Leon gets back."

"Lucky for you, I have Leon's spare key," Aerith announced, handing the shirt back to Yuffie and taking her own house keys out of her pocket to unlock her door. "Just come on in while I get Iris settled and find the key."

Following her into the apartment, Yuffie plopped herself down on the sofa and immediately found Iris in her lap once again. "Friendly little thing, aren't you?" she asked the dog absent-mindedly as she looked around the apartment. Sure, she had just spent the day here not even a week ago, but she hadn't taken the time to really look around then besides just the major things, such as the many floral paintings on the wall.

"It'll take me a minute to find the key. I haven't had to use it since the last time I had to take care of Leon's cats while he was out of town. And that was quite awhile ago," Aerith announced as she left the living room and headed down the hall to what Yuffie presumed to be her bedroom. "Just make yourself at home."

Getting up from the couch, Yuffie began wandering aimlessly around the room, examining everything while Aerith's small dog jumped at her feet. That was when the teenager noticed the black game console and the controller sitting atop it. "Cool," she muttered under her breath, feeling around on the console for the 'on' button. The only time she had played on one of these was when she ventured into the electronics store and played on their demos.

Aerith walked back into the living room, key in hand, while Yuffie was still examining playstation. "That's Cloud's. I rarely play on it, but he just _loves_ his video games," she told her visitor, handing the teenager the key. "It was one of his Christmas presents last year. That and an older game for it." She stopped to think for a moment, tapping her chin. "I can't remember what the game was called, but one of the main characters was murdered about halfway through it. It's one of the reasons I hardly use it, because of the violence."

"I've never had one of these before," Yuffie muttered, reluctantly pulling her hand away from it and taking the key from Aerith.

Noticing how enamored the girl appeared to be with the playstation, Aerith came to a decision. She strode over to the game console and began disconnecting the wires from the TV. "Here, you can borrow it until Cloud gets home since I don't make good use of it," she explained as she grabbed a bag to put both the console and a few games into.

"Are you sure? You aren't afraid I'll break it?" Yuffie asked in surprise as the florist began to rummage around in the cabinet beneath the TV and found more games.

"You won't break it. And, even if you do, it's no big deal. I can get him another one before he even realizes that his is gone." Finding the last game, Aerith placed it in the bag as well and stood back up. "Now, let's go hook this up on Leon's TV before I have to get back down to the shop. And I'll help you clean up the mess in the kitchen."

Crossing the hall, both women entered Leon's apartment, the younger grimacing when she saw the mess she had made in the kitchen and the other looking at the mess in shock, wondering how one person could make such a big mess in such a short period of time. Without a word, Aerith set the bag with the playstation down upon the table and quickly began fitting what she could into the dishwasher, taking breaks occasionally to playfully ask Yuffie _how_ she managed to get waffle batter on the ceiling. Yuffie simply told her she didn't want to know.

Finally, with both girls working together, the kitchen was back to its normal spotless shine and Aerith was hooking up the playstation, making sure that she taught Yuffie how to do it herself in case Leon wanted it unhooked later. She turned the game on and loaded a random disk, handing the controller to Yuffie. "There you go. I got to get back down to the shop, so have fun and I'll see you later," the florist told her as she walked to the door.

"Okay. Thanks for everything, Aerith," Yuffie replied distractedly, already engrossed in the game and not even hearing the door shut when Aerith left. A few minutes later, however, the phone rang and the teenager disgustedly put the game on pause while she went to answer the phone. But, even after picking the phone up, the ringing continued and she realized it wasn't the phone in her hand.

Following the ringing down the hall, she found the sound was coming from Leon's bedroom and she hesitantly entered it, intent upon finding the source of the ringing. There, on his dresser, sat a cellular phone. Thinking once again that she had found the source of the ringing, she picked it up and pushed a button to answer it. The ringing continued.

Yuffie threw her head back in disgust, groaning as she tried to find out what was still ringing. "It's gonna be a long day," she mumbled to herself, roaming around his room as she followed the sound.

* * *

A little after ten-thirty that night, Leon walked through the door, bags from the small Chinese place he had stopped at in one hand, along with a bag from the local bookstore, and the mail in the other. No sooner had he stepped through the door than he was assaulted by a barrage of what sounded like muffled 'beeeeep beeeeeep.' It was then that he realized he had left both his cellular phone and he pager at home that morning. "Yuffie?" he called concernedly, wondering why she hadn't answered the phone.

"Make it stop!" came a muffled reply from what looked like a pile of blankets and pillows on the sofa. Her head peeked out from beneath the pillow and looked pleadingly at him. "Please, just make it stop!"

Leon set the bags and letters down on the table, walking to the phone base to turn the cordless phone off, only to find it wasn't there. "Um... Yuffie... where's the phone?" he questioned confusedly, looking around the living room to see if she might have placed it upon the coffee table.

"Check in the bottom of the laundry hamper, in the pantry, and underneath the cushion of that big chair," she muttered from beneath the pillow, sticking her hand out to wave it towards each of the places she mentioned.

Sighing and tiredly running a hand through his hair, Leon trotted off to each place she mentioned and finally found that it was his pager that was going off. He jotted down the number on a post-it note, deciding it was too late to call the person, and shut the thing off.

In the living room, Yuffie sighed with relief when the beeping had stopped and crawled out from beneath the blankets and pillows, the smell of food beckoning her to the table. By the time Leon had returned to the kitchen, she already had her chopsticks and was making considerable progress on the fried rice.

"You could've waited for me," Leon grumbled, taking the other small packages of food out of the bags and placing them on the table, the tops open on each so he could pick his way through them. Just as he was about to reach for the sesame chicken, Yuffie grabbed it and began shoveling it into her mouth. "I feel like a scavenger in my own house," he mumbled, settling for the teriyaki instead and leaning back in his chair to eat it.

Swallowing the bite in her mouth, Yuffie placed the half-eaten box of sesame chicken back on the table, biting her lip as she did so. "I'm sorry. You wanted that, didn't you?" she asked quietly, her eyes downcast as she pushed the box towards him.

Leon waved it back at her with his chopsticks. "No, go ahead. It's okay. I'll just know to get more of it next time," he told her, going back to eating his teriyaki and taking a few bites of rice to go along with it.

The teenager tentatively took the sesame chicken back, as though she half expected him to change his mind and want it back. "I guess I'm just letting my hunger get the better of me," she muttered more to herself than to him, yet he had still heard her.

"You're always hungry," he declared, thinking about her almost constant intake of food since she had gotten over her flu. "In fact, I've never seen you turn down _any _food."

"You can't be picky when you don't know when or where your next meal's gonna come from," Yuffie explained, remembering that a little over two weeks ago, she was in that exact state... never knowing what she was going to eat the next day until she found it.

A silence settled over the room as they both continued to eat and Leon began to sort through the mail he had brought in. "Here... this one's for you," he told her, handing over an envelope from the Social Security Administration. "I think they've finally sent your card."

Setting her food down on the table, Yuffie ripped open the letter and pulled out the small blue card. "So, does this mean I'm a real person now?" she joked as she read the number to herself and tried to commit it to memory.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. And this is also for you." Leon reached into his back pocket and pulled out another envelope, this one plain white. "Your first paycheck."

Yuffie grabbed the envelope, carefully opening it and pulling out the check. Her eyes went wide when she stared at the amount of money she had earned. "Are you _sure_ this is all mine? I mean, you didn't accidentally give me someone else's check, too, did you?" she asked incredulously. In her whole life, she had never seen that much money at one time.

"Nope, it's all yours," Leon replied, picking up the bag from the bookstore and pulling out a thick book. "And this is yours, too." He passed the book across the table and waited for her reaction.

"A study guide for the GED?" she questioned, her brows furrowed as she began to aimlessly flip through the pages, stopping to stare at a few things in there. "What's this for?"

Sighing, Leon began stacking up the empty food boxes and throwing them in the now empty bag from the bookstore. "Last night, you asked if I would help you find your place. Well, I don't think you're going to want to be a waitress for the rest of your life. And it's been too long since you've been in school to go back. So, I figured you could get your GED and then try a junior college somewhere," he explained slowly, leaning back in his chair and staring at her.

Surprise was etched on Yuffie's face. Not only was this man taking care of her right now, but he was trying to help her enough so that further on down the road, she wouldn't have to resume her old ways. "Thank you," she murmured softly, opening the book once more and beginning to skim over the pages.

"You're welcome," Leon replied simply.

* * *

It was around midnight and Yuffie had long since gone to bed, but Leon was still awake and was the new mystery novel he had picked up a few days ago. Just as he let out a yawn and was about to go to bed himself, he heard a muffled moan coming from Yuffie's room. He put the book down and sat still, listening to see if the sound would come again or if it was only his imagination. But, it did resound and Leon rose to his feet and strode down the hall to her room, peeking through the open door to see what was wrong.

On the bed, Yuffie twisted around until the sheets were wrapped tightly around her legs and strangled sobs and moans left her throat. Concerned, Leon quickly entered the room, ignoring the light switch as the moonlight cascading through the window sufficiently illuminated the room. At the edge of her bed, he sat down and gently stroked her sweaty forehead, softly calling her name.

As she heard her name, the distraught teenager's moans and sobs became coherent cries. "Mama, mama... don't leave me, mama," she mumbled, twisting around on the bed once more.

"Yuffie, wake up," Leon commanded gently, taking her by the shoulders and shaking her slightly. Indigo eyes flew open, full of tears as they darted around the room, finally settling on the man in front of her. She pulled herself upright and threw herself against his chest, wrapping her arms around him as she soaked his shirt with a fresh wave of tears. Leon brought his arms around, holding her against him and stroking her back in long, soothing strokes. "It's okay, Yuffie. It was just a nightmare."

The girl in her arms passionate shook her head before looking up at him with a tear-stained face. "No it wasn't," she muttered, remembering the dream too vividly for her liking. She reluctantly pulled out of his arms and leaned against the back of the bed, reaching under her blankets for her stuffed bear.

"Of course it was a nightmare, Yuffie," Leon insisted, watching as she roughly wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand while the other clutched the bear. "Everyone has them from time to time."

"It _wasn't _a nightmare," she insisted just as stubbornly as he had insisted it was. She knew what it was and she decided she would tell him as much. "It's... it's a memory," she whispered quietly, turning her head to look towards the door.

Just as Leon was about to say something, Yuffie interrupted him. "Do you remember what I told you about my parents? About them being murdered?" she asked quickly, watching him nod slowly. "Well, that's half right." Taking a deep breath, Yuffie began her story, telling him more things than she had ever told anyone before. But, she felt she could trust him with her past for some strange reason.

"I was four years old when it happened," she whispered, her brows furrowed as she looked down at the bear in her hands. "I remember it like it was just yesterday." She paused, looking up into Leon's eyes to see if he was listening or not. He was, and she lowered her eyes once more. "My mother... she was leaving my father for what seemed like the hundredth time to me. She had promised me that it would be the last time he would ever hit either of us."

A hand falling across hers made her look up in surprise and stop for a moment as she tried to find her words. "I was supposed to be waiting in my room for her... with the door closed, but the yelling was growing louder so I snuck out to see what was happening," she murmured, clenching her eyes tightly shut as though trying to block the mental images. "He... he told her that he wasn't going to let us leave this time, but my mother ignored him and continued to pack the suitcase."

She took a deep shuddery breath to keep the sobs at bay for now. She had to finish this without crying. "My father grabbed the gun he kept in the closet, threatening mama with it, but she ignored him. It wasn't the first time he had pointed a gun at her," Yuffie scoffed slightly, not wanting to _feel_ anything for it hurt too much. "But, this time was different. He knew that this would be the last time... and then... the noise, from the gun, it scared me and I jumped out of the doorway." Her voice cracked slightly and she barely noticed when Leon's arms wrapped around her and drew him to her chest. "And my mother fell to the floor with a dull thud. She was dead before she hit the floor, the back of her head was just.... _gone_."

"It's okay, Yuffie. It's okay," Leon murmured softly, once again stroking her back to help soothe her. In his arms, the teenager shuddered and he could feel her choke back a sob as her arms feebly wrapped around his waist.

"And... and... then," she hiccoughed, her sobs breaking through the barriers she had so carefully erected. "Then when he saw what he had done, he ran out into the hallway, crying her name over and over again. And while I was still standing there, unable to move from both fear and shock, he put the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger."

Leon tightly clenched his eye shut just imagining what this girl had gone through at such a young age. No one should ever go through that, young or old. Yet she had.

"I don't remember much of what happened next. I just know that I hid in the closet. I don't know if it was for a few minutes or for a few days, but I stayed in there until the police found me," Yuffie finished, burying her face into Leon's chest and tightening her grip around him.

Not knowing what else to do, Leon simply held onto her, allowing her to cry herself back to sleep in his arms while he murmured soothing words to her. Once her breathing had evened, he carefully laid her back down upon the bed, pulling the blankets up to her chin. But, as he got up to leave, he felt a soft tug on his shirt. "Please don't leave me, Squall," Yuffie whispered, her eyes pleading with him to stay. "I just... I don't want to be alone tonight."

"Okay. I'll stay here while you sleep," Leon replied, walking across the room to move the chair sitting there to her bedside. As soon as he sat down, Yuffie reached over and grasped hs hand within one of hers. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Just go back to sleep, Yuffie. And I'll be right here."

Nodding, Yuffie settled back down into the blankets, still holding onto Leon's hand as she fell into what she hoped would be a dreamless sleep. But, instead of a dreamless sleep, she dreamed of what it felt like when Leon had been holding her, comforting her and what it would be like to stay in those arms forever. Safe in those arms.

Hours later, the sunlight from the rising sun filtered through the thin curtains of Yuffie's room and landed upon Leon's face. His eyes fluttered open and he found himself still sitting in the chair, but hunched over so his head was resting upon Yuffie's bed. A warmth stretched across his neck and he turned his head to the side to find Yuffie's arm resting across it. A small smile flitted across his face as he quietly yawned, looking at the clock as he did so. It was just after six in the morning and he knew if he didn't get some sleep somewhere comfortable, he would be regretting it later in the day.

A brief thought of climbing into he bed with Yuffie crossed his mind, but with the way his thoughts towards her had been going lately, he knew he couldn't trust himself. And he didn't want to ruin the trust that was building between them. So, rising to his feet and ignoring the popping of his back as it protested the position he had slept in, he started to leave the room, but stopped at the doorway and turned back around. He slowly approached her bed and leaned over, placing a gentle kiss upon Yuffie's forehead, believing that since she was still asleep, no one would be the wiser. He left the room, leaving the door partially open.

As soon as she heard him walk out of the room, Yuffie's eyes flew open and stared disbelievingly at the door. She slowly brought a hand up and touched her forehead, the warmth from his lips still lingering there. Sighing with a soft smile, she snuggled back down into the blankets and closed her eyes, having forgotten her nightmare from the night before and only thinking about the chaste kiss Leon had given her that morning.

* * *

_Author's Note: AAAAHHHH!!!! Long chapter. Over 5000 words! Okay, I'm tired now and as soon as I think of a chapter title, I'm gonna post this baby._


	12. Chapter Twelve: Sugar and Spice

_Author's Note: Okay, I had to come back over to this fic and write something not so angsty to help cheer myself up. And I'm having trouble writing this chapter because my muse :::glare::: wants to start on something new... a sort-of songfic to "On the Way Down." And it's a sort-of songfic because though it's inspired by the song, I don't think I'll be able to fit the lyrics in until the VERY end and it'll be chaptered. BUT, I'm not posting anything on it until either HAT or "Lullaby" is finished... probably "Lullaby." _

_And, ARG!! I keep calling Leon Squall and Squall Leon and I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to be calling him anymore. But, I think I'm going to fix that in this chapter._

_And this stupid site keeps doing away with all the symbols I use... first it was the astericks and the little wavy line thing... then it was my "equal sign, hyphen" pattern scene break. Then my paragraph indentations that I love. AND NOW they've done away with the brackets. What's next?? Question marks? Exclamation points?? Periods?? Capital letters??_

_Note to Aoi-butterfly: Nah, your last review didn't bother me. I understood your point perfectly._

--_Disclaimer: I do not own them, Sam I Am, I do not own them, although I would LOVE to have Squallie chained up in my room... maybe handcuffed to the ceiling... uh... um... yeah.... I think I'm gonna shut up now..._

* * *

_Chapter Twelve: Sugar and Spice_

__"Is there anything else you'll need, ma'am?" the middle-aged proprietor of the small Italian grocery asked as he rang up the various items Yuffie had placed on the counter. Thick black eyebrows peeked out from beneath the red hat he wore as kind eyes looked down at the girl.

"Nope, that'll be all." Smiling, Yuffie shook her head and pulled the money Leon had given her for the groceries out of her pocket, carefully unfolding the bills as she did so. Aerith had tried to get her to carry a purse, but being a former pick pocket, she knew how easily _those_ could be stolen and had politely refused the florist's advice.

The store owner began to carefully place her purchases into a brown paper bag while Yuffie counted out the correct change. Smiling gratefully, he took the money from her and pushed the bag, which sported the store's name, simply _Gianni's_, across the counter and into Yuffie's arms. "We thank you and come again," he called, waving as she walked out the door and into the cool, late October air. The sun setting in the distance cast a soft orange glow over everything around her, making it seem as though the streets were paved in gold.

As soon as she was outside, she reached into the bag and pulled out the small box of freshly made strawberry-filled cannolis and ripped it open single-handedly since the paper bag full of groceries was still in her other hand. Biting into the dessert, she sighed and tried not to make too many noises as she savored the taste. She was already gaining stares from the people she passed just for the way she had ripped into the package. She didn't need anymore.

Finishing the first cannoli, Yuffie decided she had better not eat the last one, but, rather, save it for Squall. _Leon, _she mentally corrected herself, knowing that if he were there, he would correct her instead. She really didn't know _why_ she had such a hard time with his name. Leon was such a simple name and Squall was such a... well, such a strange name, to put it bluntly. Of course, therein may lie the problem. The name Leon made him seem average, nothing special. But _Squall_ gave him a dangerous air, like the storms he was named after.

While she walked along, ruminating over both his names, the memory of the gentle kiss he had placed on her forehead a few days before came to mind. Yuffie sighed, trying to sort things out as she was still just as confused today as she was the moment he had kissed her. He had apparently thought her asleep at the time and had not brought it up, instead becoming more distant than he had been before, which, in turn, made the girl too afraid to bring it up herself.

Having been lost so deep in thoughts revolving around all things Squall, Yuffie didn't notice the telephone pole in front of her until she felt it connect soundly with her forehead. "Ow!" she cried, very nearly dropping the bag she was holding to rub her forehead, but remembering that it contained a few glass jars and they would surely smash on the concrete below. So, with her other hand, she gingerly touched the knot that was already forming on her brow and wondered how big of a mark the pole had left.

She glared angrily at the telephone pole, as though it were its fault she had smashed into it, and quickly crossed the sidewalk to look at her reflection in the nearest store window. A faint purple bruise was rapidly forming and she gently prodded it around the edges, wincing as she did so. "Perfect," she muttered, knowing that to avoid embarrassment, she would have to come up with a plausible lie for what happened. They would think she was insane if she told anyone that she was too absorbed in thoughts of her completely hot benefactor...

She paused her thoughts right there, blinking a few times. "Completely hot?" she whispered softly, hoping no one could hear her. "Where did _that_ come from?" Of course, after she thought about it for a minute, she had to admit that it was true. And when this Sunday had turned into a repeat of last Sunday, with Squall walking around for most of the day in only his boxers, she realized that it was her favorite day of the week.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Yuffie stared into the glass store front once more, trying to discern if the bruise had actually grown over the past few minutes. But, instead of her reflection, her eyes instead fell upon the Halloween costumes displayed in the window. Mentally calculating how much money of her own she had left, glad that she was now getting a steady paycheck, she almost walked into the store to buy one until she realized that she really had no where to wear it. As Squall hadn't mentioned anything about a Halloween party, she assumed he wasn't having one, especially since it was only a few days away; and, she knew she was too old really to go trick-or-treating. So, sighing in disappointment, she dragged herself away from the store and headed back to Squall's apartment.

After trekking through two blocks of crowds, Yuffie finally reached the apartment door and had to shift the groceries over to her hip so she could unlock and open the door. Nearly dropping the bag once again, she hurried over to the counter and hefted it up onto the surface, right next to Squall, who was sitting on a barstool with his laptop computer open and in front of him, seemingly oblivious that Yuffie had returned. "Okay, where do you want this stuff?" the teenager finally asked, already pulling out a few items from the bag and setting them on the counter.

"Just leave everything out for now except for the cheese and put it on the top shelf of the refrigerator," Leon muttered distractedly as he stared intently at the computer screen in front of him, scrolling the page down a little further as he wrote some information down on a sheet of paper.

Curious, Yuffie leaned over his arm and looked at the screen herself, furrowing her brows and leaning closer to get a better look. On the screen, the image of a silver lion's head was set against a large sword, the hilt of the sword appearing below the mane of the lion. "What is that?" Yuffie whispered, her eyes still fixed upon it. "It's beautiful."

"It's my family's crest," he explained, scrolling up the page so she could get a better picture of it. "We used to have it on a chain, but my grandfather sold it when he needed some money. And it just seemed to have disappeared after that. I've spent the last four years trying to track it down and haven't been able to find it anywhere." Looking up from the computer, Leon noticed a small pink blob on the tip of Yuffie's nose and he resisted the urge to wipe it off for her, instead telling her, "You have something on your nose."

Frowning, Yuffie lifted her hand up and wiped the blob off with her fingers, looking at it and then laughing. "Yeah, it's from the cannolis I bought. I kinda got hungry on the way home and ate one," she told him sheepishly, remembering that it _was _his money she bought them with. "There's one left if you want it." She reached into the paper bag and held the cannoli box out to him.

Squall sighed and ran a hand slowly through his hair, shaking his head as he did so. "No, you can have it." He looked back up to see her already biting into it, managing to get the strawberry cream at the corners of her mouth, which she daintily wiped away. And as much as he hated to admit it, watching her eat the cannoli was starting to turn him on, so he quickly shifted his gaze from her mouth to her eyes. That was when he noticed the large purple bruise on her forehead. "What did you do to your forehead?"

"Promise you won't laugh?" she pleaded, a light blush starting to creep across her face.

"It depends on how you did that. I mean, if you walked into a telephone pole..." he trailed off when he saw her blush deepen and she refused to meet his eyes. "You walked into a telephone pole?" he asked incredulously, reaching out to lightly touch the knot on her head to see how serious it was and trying not to give into the urge to kiss it. But, at her wince, he withdrew his fingers and instead walked over to the refrigerator and pulled a couple of ice cubes out of the freezer, wrapping them in a dish towel and handing them to her. "Here, this should help with the swelling."

Yuffie gratefully took the ice pack away, still slightly confused from hearing the concern in his voice when he had asked her about it. After Squall being cold and distant to her for the last few days, it wasn't something she was expecting. "Thanks, Squall," she murmured as she placed the pack on her forehead, shivering as the ice quickly cooled her skin.

Rubbing his eyes with one hand before pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, Squall stared down at her, about to correct her once more. But, for some reason, he found himself unable to. He sighed, dropping his hand to his side. "Okay, since you can't seem to remember to call me Leon, you and only _you_ may call me Squall," he finally conceded, shaking his head as he did so.

Blinking a few times and staring at him, Yuffie slowly brought the hand that held the ice pack to her forehead down to her side. "I... uh... really?" she finally stammered out, still shocked and confused.

"Yes, really," Squall answered, going to answer the door as someone had begun tapping impatiently at it. He pulled it open to find Aerith immediately pushing past him and stepping into the apartment, ignoring him and turning to Yuffie. "Why, of course you can come in, Aerith. Just make yourself at home," he muttered sarcastically under his breath as he shut the door.

"Yuffie, we got to go get you a Hallo–," the florist began, stopping when she saw the bruise on the girl's forehead. "What on earth did you do to your head?"

Rolling her eyes, Yuffie put the ice pack back on the knot, wincing at the cold. "I hit it on a telephone pole," she muttered quietly, halfway hoping Aerith wouldn't hear her. But she did.

"Here, let me see it," the florist commanded, pulling the ice pack away from it and prodding the edges of the bruise. "It's not too bad and a little makeup will cover it right up."

"I'm not wearing makeup," the teenager insisted, hating the way the stuff made her face feel like it was suffocating. "And what were you saying a moment ago?" Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Squall folded up his laptop and left the room, leaving the two women alone.

Stopping to think for a moment, Aerith furrowed her brows and tried to remember. "Oh yeah. We've got to get you a Halloween costume. There's the cutest costume over in this shop–"

Yuffie put her ice pack down on the counter and placed her hands firmly on the older woman's shoulders. "Aerith, calm down. I don't have any place to _wear_ a costume, so I really don't think I need to get one."

"But that's the thing, Yuf. I pulled some strings at the high school I volunteer at and got you entered in the costume contest," the florist told her excitedly, her brilliant green eyes shining with delight. She grab Yuffie's arm and started tugging her towards the door. "So, come on before that shop sells the costume I want you to see."

"Well, okay... but let me go grab my wallet. I mean, I don't want _you_ paying for the costume," Yuffie insisted, pulling away from Aerith and going down the hall to her room. She passed Squall on the way as he was going back into the living room.

"She's seventeen, not seven, Aerith," Squall told her, shaking his head and giving the woman a half-hearted glare. "What if she doesn't want to dress up for Halloween?"

Simply rolling her eyes, the florist tiredly brought her hands up to massage her temples. "Leon, I drove past her as she was walking back a little while ago. And she was staring into a costume store. Think about it. From what little she's told us about her past, I gather she didn't have much of a childhood," Aerith hissed, not wanting her voice to carry down the hall to Yuffie's ears.

Yuffie came back into the living room, completely oblivious to the short conversation that was centered around her. "I'm ready when you are, Aerith," she sang happily, already walking towards the apartment door, her hand on the knob. She stopped and turned back to Squall, who had just turned the TV on and was flipping through the channels. "Bye, Squall," she called, waving as she walked out the door.

The florist, who had been heading towards the door, stopped mid-step and turned to the man, surprise clearly written across her features. "Squall?" she mouthed, blinking a few times. It had been years since he had let _anyone_ call him that.

"Don't ask," he muttered, shaking his head.

* * *

A few days later, on Halloween to be precise, Squall found himself leaning against the gymnasium wall of the local high school next to Aerith. His arms were crossed over his chest and his head was lowered slightly, causing his mahogany bangs to veil his stormy blue eyes. And he seemed to be getting quite a few open-mouthed stares from love-struck teenagers. He had never liked this much attention and he still didn't. "Aerith," he growled, keeping his voice low so as not to draw any more attention to himself, "tell me again _why_ I'm here?"

Brushing her chestnut bangs out of her face, she turned to give him an exasperated stare. "To support Yuffie," the florist sighed, having already told him that at least five times in the last hour.

Before he could come back with a crisp retort, Yuffie stepped out of the dressing room, clad in her Halloween costume. She had refused to show him what it was she had bought, claiming it was going to be a surprise as she stashed the bag away in the back of her closet. And she didn't want to put it on until _after _they had arrived at the high school. So, it came to him as a complete shock to see her in the costume.

She wore a pleated brown suede skirt that came just to her knees and a matching short suede vest with fringe over a red shirt. Around her neck, a red bandana was tied and a white cowboy hat sat atop her head, her short ebony hair peeking out under the edges. She also wore white cowboy boots with knee-high white socks and had a small rope coiled at her waist. Really, Squall didn't know _why_ he felt so drawn to her right then as the costume really wasn't what one could consider sexy. But, he finally surmised that it was just the right mix of both cute and sexy that tugged at him.

Squall watched as Yuffie inadvertently slammed the dressing room door into the nose of some guy about her age. And she quickly ran over to owner of said nose, with a hand covering her mouth as she appeared to be gushing out an apology. But, the guy simply waved a hand at her and smiled, and Yuffie walked away. It was then that Squall noticed the guy checking her out, causing his blood to begin to boil which only served to confuse him. It wasn't as if he had staked a claim on Yuffie or anything. But, then again, his mind reminded him of the way he had kissed her forehead nearly a week ago and how he seemed to be inexplicably drawn to her.

As Yuffie started to walk across the stage to where the other contestants were waiting, Squall noticed that it wasn't only that one guy who was staring at her, but quite a few of the other guys as well. With a shock, he realized he was starting to become jealous and strangely protective of Yuffie... as though she belonged to him. And when he noticed some guys standing beneath the stage, staring up so they could look beneath the girls' skirts, he suddenly had a strong urge to go beat them down.

Coming to the realization that if he stayed here much longer, he would end up hurting someone, Squall stepped away from the wall and turned to his companion. "Aerith, I've got to go. All this noise is driving me insane," he expertly lied, trying not to look over his shoulder at Yuffie as seeing all the guys staring at her would only serve to increase his jealousy.

"But, Leon," Aerith protested, grabbing his arm and holding him back. "You didn't bring your car. We came in mine, remember?"

"I'll catch a cab," he replied nonchalantly, shrugging her off his arm so he could exit the building.

Unbeknownst to Squall, Yuffie had watched him leave the building, frowning as she did so and becoming so distracted by it, that the student she had been talking to had to repeat his question. "Mm hmm," Yuffie mumbled, still not really hearing the question and leaping off the stage, hollering "I'll be back in a minute" over her shoulder to both her new acquaintance and Aerith.

Bursting through the double doors, Yuffie found Squall starting to walk towards the road, his hands in his pockets and his head bent against the chill wind. "Hey!" she called out loudly, sprinting towards him. She noted happily that he had stopped walking and turned to her.

Squall simply raised her eyebrows, urging her to continue without saying a word. He tried to hide his emotions, but, in doing so, it gave him a sullen look on his face.

Yuffie bit her lip, wondering if maybe it would just be better to let the man leave since he apparently didn't want to be here. But, leaving things alone had never been her strong point. "So... um, why'd you leave? I kinda wanted you to see," she said softly, trying to keep her voice steady.

Knowing that he couldn't tell her he had to leave before he did something completely irrational, Squall only shrugged his shoulders and muttered a short and curt 'whatever.'

"Was it just a bunch of stupid teenagers having _fun_ that annoyed you so much?" Yuffie prodded angrily, a few tears springing unbidden into the back of her eyes. She had thought that this cold Squall had disappeared a few days ago, but, apparently, she was wrong, for here he was standing in front of her.

Seeing the tears in her eyes slowly begin to slide down her cheeks, he sighed and put his arms around her slim shoulders, drawing her to him in a gentle hug. As he couldn't think of anything to say to fix what had just happened, he simply stood there with her in his arms.

Yuffie drew back from him, her brows drawn into an angry scowl as she glared at him past her tears. "And you can't say that you don't care! You kissed me!" she insisted, pointing an accusatory finger in his face. She really hadn't meant to bring up the kiss on her forehead, but the words just came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Squall's eyes grew large as he suddenly realized that when he had kissed her forehead, thinking she was asleep, she had actually been awake. He slowly dropped his arms from where they still rested on her shoulders and allowed them to hang at his sides. "Yes, I did," he whispered, hanging his head slightly and not meeting her eyes.

Just as she was about to ask him _why_ he had kissed her, since it was all out in the open now, Aerith peeked her head out through the door and called to her, saying that the competition was about to actually start and she needed to get back in there. Sighing, Yuffie shut her eyes for a moment and then readjusted her hat. "I... I... uh... better get back in there," she stuttered, wanting to stay outside and find out why he had kissed her, but scared at the same time.

Nodding, Squall stayed to watch her back into the gymnasium before continuing on his trek to the road, still planning on hailing a taxi to take him home. But, he decided, he had a stop to make before he actually went back to the apartment.

* * *

After the judging was over and the prize was awarded to someone who had dressed as an exam by the most feared teacher on campus, Yuffie and Aerith finally made it back to the apartment, the teenager still dressed in her costume. In the hallway, they found a dozen or so trick-or-treaters meandering around and knocking on doors and one rather large trick-or-treater sitting on the floor in front of Aerith's door.

Dressed as a vampire, the trick-or-treater had painted his face a pasty white with dark shadows around his brilliant blue eyes and had even gone so far as to dye his rather spiky hair black. Yuffie knew it was dyed as a few blonde roots showed through. He stood up as he saw them approaching, holding out an empty bag as he did so. "Trick or treat," he lisped, his tongue tripping over the fake fangs in his mouth.

No sooner had he stood up and uttered that phrase, than Aerith squealed loudly and launched herself at the man, lips locking onto his. Yuffie watched in shock as the florist fumbled in her purse for her key without ever once taking her lips off of his. Finally, they broke apart for air and she took advantage of that time to quickly open the door, pulling him in behind her. "I think I swallowed a fang," Yuffie heard the masquerading vampire mutter as the door shut behind them.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, Aerith. I'll be perfectly fine," the teenager called, glad that she had remembered to take her key to the apartment with her. Especially since Squall didn't appear to be home yet. And, seeing the florist attack that trick-or-treater like that, Yuffie would have been loathe to call on her for help.

She opened the door, on which Squall had taped a 'no candy' sign earlier in the day to prevent trick-or-treaters from knocking, and stepped into the dark apartment, immediately flipping on the nearest light as she closed and locked the door behind her. She was right in assuming that Squall was still out since his keys were not hanging on the hook where he always left them.

Looking at the clock, she sighed. It was just seven o'clock and she had nothing else planned to occupy her time for the rest of the evening. It was far too soon to go to bed, Squall was gone and who knew when _he_ would get back, and Aerith... well, she didn't want to even _think _about what Aerith was doing right now. She could only hope that man was her husband. She struggled to remember the photo of Cloud Strife the florist had shown her and could very vaguely recall blonde spiky hair and blue eyes, but that was all.

Her stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her that she had yet to eat dinner, so she made her way through the kitchen, grabbing a cup of yogurt and a spoon before going down the hall to her bedroom. Since she had nothing else to do, she decided she would be much more comfortable in her pajamas... or, really, they were Squall's old flannel shirts. She found them more comfortable than the silk pajamas Aerith had forced on her. And they also smelled nice... like Squall, she admitted to herself, smiling and shaking her head as she did so.

After buttoning up the flannel shirt, maroon this time, she pulled on a pair of her grey sweat socks and picked up the cup of yogurt she had set on the dresser, heading back into the living room, intent on watching some TV until she fell asleep. But, as soon as she sat down on the couch and pulled the fuzzy blanket that was sitting there around her, she heard keys in the doorknob and turned around to watch as Squall came into the apartment, a pizza box in one hand and a clear plastic bag with a few movies from the local rental store in the other.

"You got pizza?" Yuffie asked excitedly, jumping up off the couch and already forgetting the yogurt she had just started to eat. "What kind?"

Squall set the pizza box down on the counter, placing the movies beside it and opened the box. "Just pepperoni... I couldn't remember what you liked on it," he admitted, already going to the pantry to pull out two paper plates. When he turned back, Yuffie already had a piece of the pizza in one hand, a bite or two gone, and the movies in the other, reading the titles off while she ate.

"_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, Pet Cemetery, _and _Carrie_?" she asked, looking back and forth between the movies titles and Squall for a moment. "Those all sound like scary movies." She looked at him suspiciously, taking another bite of the pizza and fishing around in the refrigerator for a soda to drink with it.

"They are," Squall smirked, handing her a plate even though it seemed to be useless to do so since she was just about finished with her first piece of pizza and using her hands apparently didn't bother her. "You're supposed to watch scary movies on Halloween." He didn't tell her that he had purposely rented scary movies just for the fact that he knew she would get scared and hide her face. And he hoped it would be a repeat of what had happened at the movie theater. He couldn't help it; he liked to have her pressed up against him and hiding her face in his shirt.

Carrying the pizza box into the living room, he sat it on the coffee table and placed the first DVD, _Pet Cemetery_, into the player before sitting down on the end of the couch. Yuffie sat down on the opposite end, already working on her second piece of pizza. As the movie progressed and became scarier, he noticed that she kept edging towards him until she was finally up against his side and hiding her face in his shirt. He had been right in guessing that would happen.

Yuffie shivered slightly, both from the scary scenes in the movie and from the relatively cold air in the apartment, making her pull the blanket she had discarded earlier up around her and curl tighter into Squall's side. She really wasn't sure how he felt about her being so close to him as he was such a confusing person, but it didn't matter. The movie scared her, yet he made her feel safe when his arm came around her back, and she cherished that feeling. It made her feel like she belonged somewhere for once in her life, a feeling she hadn't had since before her mother died.

In the middle of the third movie, _Carrie_, Squall noticed that Yuffie's head kept drooping slightly as she would drift off to sleep, only to jerk it back up when she woke up each time. Finally, her head fell and she didn't lift it up, telling him that she had fallen asleep for good this time. He toyed with the idea of staying on the couch all night and letting her sleep there with him, but ultimately decided she would be better off in her own bed and he would be better in his.

So, carefully picking her up, he carried her bridal style to her room, trying not to peek down her shirt when it dipped low in the front. It was really starting to drive him mad the way she would run around all evening and all morning on Sundays in just his flannel shirts. And he would find himself trying to take a peek and then immediately hate himself afterwards each time she did.

Yuffie incoherently mumbled something and twitched in her sleep as Squall pulled the sheets of her bed down before placing her in it. And like he had done before when she had fallen asleep at Aerith's, he pulled the blankets up to her chin, effectively tucking her in before he left the room, remembering to leave her door partially open. Then, returning to the living room, he turned off the still playing movie and retired to bed himself.

It was only a few hours into her sleep when Yuffie awoke suddenly from a nightmare, shivering slightly as the sweat on her body cooled. This time, however, her nightmare wasn't of her mother's death, but having to do with the movies she and Squall had watched. Eyes darting around the room, it appeared like everything was alive and trying to reach out to her.

She jumped out of the bed and darted down the hall to Squall's room, tiptoeing inside and stopping at his bedside. And just as she was about to awaken him to ask if she could stay in his room that night, just on the floor so she wouldn't be alone, something creaked behind her and she dived into his bed before she could stop herself. She curled into a tight ball, pulling the blankets around her and clenched her eyes shut, hating herself for being such a wimp.

The bouncing of the mattress as she jumped onto to it awakened Squall, who groggily rolled over and stared at her, trying to get his eyes to focus. "Yuffie?" he mumbled sleepily, running a hand tiredly down his face. Her face peeked out from beneath the blankets and wide, scared indigo eyes seemed to bore holes into his face.

"I... I kept having dreams that I'm going to be murdered by a homicidal devil-witch," she admitted sheepishly, beginning to crawl out from under the covers and off the bed. "And I didn't want to be alone, so I came in here to ask if I could sleep on the floor. And then there was this noise behind me and it scared me so I kinda jumped into bed with you," she finished lamely, now standing up beside his bed and looking down at the floor.

Suddenly feeling very guilty for renting scary movies when he knew they terrified her, Squall nodded, lifting the edge of the blanket so she could crawl back under them. She simply stared at him. "You don't have to sleep on the floor, Yuffie," he mumbled, scooting over so there was more room for her on that side of the bed. "The bed is plenty big enough."

"Are you sure?" Yuffie asked timidly.

"Yes."

"Positive?"

"Yes! Now get in the bed!" Squall finally commanded in exasperation, relieved to see that she was actually climbing into the bed. He had thought for a moment that he would have to physically lift her up and put her in the bed before she would do it herself. But, there she was, less than a foot away from him with her back turned towards him and curled into a ball.

Feeling much safer now that she wasn't alone, Yuffie sighed in contentment and breathed in deeply Squall's scent from the pillow and sheets. She couldn't describe the scent, not in words anyways, but it was something that seemed to be distinctly him and she was beginning to crave that smell. "Thank you, Squall," she murmured, closing her eyes and feeling safe and secure with him just on the other side of the bed.

Instead of answering her with a verbal reply, Squall reached out a hand and began to gently stroke her hair, wondering at its silky softness. And since Yuffie didn't seem to protest, he continued to do so until slumber reclaimed him and his hand, though now stilled, rested in her hair.

* * *

_Author's Note: FINALLY finished this chapter at precisely midnight on Saturday night. And I am now going to bed. By the by, my chapters seem to be getting longer and longer each time I write one for this story. The last one was just over 5000 words, this one is about 5500 words. :::sigh::: Anyways, a review would make me VERY happy._


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Out of the Darkness

_Author's Note: Okay, I STARTED this chapter as soon as I posted chapter five of Lullaby. BUT, my mind kept getting easily distracted and it's taken me FOREVER to get this chapter actually finished. :::sigh::: I think I need to get some of that "focus factor" stuff to help me concentrate._

_Note to JadeBlossom727: I don't know exactly how I keep my inspiration, but writing is the only thing keeping me SANE while I attend college. I mean, seriously, I started writing in January of this year and this last semester didn't seem quite as stressful as the others before it. The only thing I can surmise is that the writing is my stress relief. Plus, I love to write fluff since I have a serious lack of it in my life._

–_Disclaimer: Most of the characters portrayed below belong to their rightful owners of Square and Disney. I do not own any of them and do not make any profit off of writing this. If I did own these characters, I would be too busy drooling over Squall to write fanfiction._

* * *

_Chapter Thirteen: Out of the Darkness_

Shivering, Squall woke up to find all the blankets he had on his bed pulled to the side and wrapped around an unidentifiable lump on the far edge of his queen size bed. The small shock of obsidian hair against his hunter green sheets and paler green blankets triggered the memory of Yuffie crawling into bed with him the night before. He could only assume that the lump was her.

The lump shifted and a leg was kicked out from beneath the blankets, revealing bare skin from her ankle all the way up to her thigh. His stormy eyes traced over the slender limb even as he struggled not to. A loud crack of thunder finally jarred him enough to pull his gaze from her to look out the rain-streaked window.

Rain fell from the darkened sky in sheets, making it impossible for Squall to see very far into the distance. A burst of white hot lightning in the black clouds illuminated the city for a moment before plunging it back into the dismal darkness. The low rumble of thunder that followed was enough to rattle the windows, making Squall glad that he had no plans for leaving the apartment today. It was one of those days that you simply spent lounging around the house, curling up with a blanket and a good book or movie.

With a soft groan and a yawn, Squall swung his legs off the bed and sat up, stretching somewhat before he stood up. Rubbing his eyes, he blindly stared at the small alarm clock at his bedside, willing the glaring red numbers to come into focus. Since the dark clouds managed to prevent any sunshine from reaching his window, he was unable to accurately judge the time by that like he normally would.

The red numbers finally came into focus, showing that it was well after ten and quickly nearing eleven, much later than he would normally sleep, Sunday or not. But, then again, he and Yuffie had stayed up well into the morning watching movies the night before, so he felt somewhat justified for sleeping so late.

After slightly taming his wild mane of mahogany hair, Squall began to leave the bedroom to start cooking breakfast, coming to the conclusion that Yuffie would awaken when the smells of bacon and sausage frying assaulted her nostrils. But, just as he was at the door, a loud _THUNK_ met his ears and he spun around to find the lump on his bed now on the floor, blankets and pillows with it and unmoving.

Sighing as he ran a hand through his hair, Squall approached the lump and squatted to see if she had hit her head on the bedside table on her way down. A soft snore was his reply as he pulled the blanket away from her face. He noted that she burrowed even further down into the blankets, making a noise that sounded like something between a whimper and a grunt.

While Squall stayed there debating whether to leave her on the floor or pick her up and put her back on the bed, her indigo eyes fluttered open, blinking a few times to clear her vision. "Squall?" she mumbled, her brows furrowed as she looked around the room confusedly before she remembered climbing into bed with him the night before. But, now she wondered why she was on the floor and not the bed. "What am I doing on the floor?"

"The cats kicked you out of the bed," he told her jokingly as Sydney peered over the edge of the bed to stare at her. Squall didn't know when the cat had crept into the bedroom, but he was in here now and curiously watching his young mistress, as he had adopted her as one of the family by now. "And how did you not wake up when you fell off?"

"I didn't get much sleep last night between the nightmares and your snoring," Yuffie muttered, closing her eyes and running a hand through her tangled mess of hair. She sleepily rubbed her eyes, sitting up as she did so and leaned back against the mattress.

Raising an eyebrow, Squall regarded her with mock indignation as he rose to his feet, crossing his arms over his still bare chest. "I do not snore," he said with playful resentment while she simply stared at him and yawned.

"Sure, you don't. And pigs are flying past outside that window and demons are skating around on ice rinks and--" She would have continued on if it hadn't been for the flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder coming from the clouds outside, causing her to shudder and clench her eyes tightly shut in an attempt to block out the storm.

Squall watched the girl confusedly as she stopped mid-sentence and began to take deep breaths. "Yuffie?" he called softly, squatting down next to her once more. When she didn't respond to her name, he dropped a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"It was raining..." she began, her eyes still closed and her breath coming in ragged gasps now as she tried not to cry. "It was raining when... when my mother died." Another shudder went through her body as she remembered the scene of her mother falling lifeless to the floor. "The rain... the rain makes me remember."

Not knowing what else to do, Squall simply gave her shoulder another reassuring squeeze, causing her to turn her head and look up at him with a shaky smile. "Thanks, Squall," she whispered as she slowly brought her own hand up to cover his, thankful that he hadn't teased her about her dislike of the rain.

As much as he wanted to stay there on the floor with her, with her hand covering his, he knew he couldn't and he once more rose to his feet. "I'm going to go start breakfast," he told her, beginning to walk out of the room, but stopping in the doorway to turn and look at her again. "Anything in particular that you want?"

"Uh... just anything with a lot of sugar?" Yuffie said questioningly, her head cocked to the side like a curious puppy as she stared at him. "French toast maybe?"

Squall nodded as he left the room, muttering something about Yuffie's near constant intake of sugar rivaling that of a hummingbird's. How she managed to eat so much of it without making herself sick or sending herself into a diabetic coma was beyond his knowledge.

Climbing to her feet, Yuffie looked around the room momentarily, catching her reflection in the mirror over his dresser and realizing that her hair was a lanky, snarled mess, before picking the blankets up off the floor and quickly making Squall's bed for him. It was her way of thanking him for letting her sleep in their with him. That, and she had made a twisted, tangled wad out of his blankets and sheets not only from falling off the bed and taking them with her, but also from hogging them all and enveloping herself into her self-made cocoon.

Finally getting the bed into some semblance of neatness, Yuffie retreated from Squall's bedroom and into hers, quickly grabbing some clothes, a pair of blue jeans, an oversized sweatshirt, and her undergarments, before heading to the bathroom for a shower. She hoped she still had time before Squall finished making breakfast as she really didn't much care for cold French toast.

In the kitchen, Squall was in the middle of cutting thick slices of bread off the loaf of bread he had bought at a local bakery a few days before when there was a soft knock on the door. Without opening it, he knew it was going to be Aerith. Really, besides the occasional salesman, Aerith and Cloud were the only people who came by his apartment.

Sure enough, upon opening the door, he found the florist dressed in a light pink sweater and a faded pair of blue jeans. Her brilliant green eyes widened incredibly when she saw what Squall was wearing. "Leon! Don't tell me you're still going around in your underwear all day on Sundays?!" she demanded, forcing her way into the apartment, like she was prone to do, and glaring at him.

"Uh... yeah. Why?" Squall asked confusedly, wondering why it really even mattered to Aerith. The sudden impact of her hand hitting him hard on the back of his head made him wince and rub the area. "And what was that for?"

Aerith let out a frustrated half growl, half scream as she scowled at him. "Leon, you have a seventeen year old girl living in your apartment and _you're wandering around all day in your boxers?!" _she hissed rather loudly, her face screwed up in annoyance. "Squall Leonhart, I thought you had better sense than that!"

Squall held up his hands in defeat, backing away a few feet from the florist in case she decided to hit him once more. "Okay, okay. You win, Aerith. My decency standards will go," he relented, starting down the hall to get dressed before she could yell at him anymore.

Yuffie saw him pass by her bedroom door as she was coming out of it, having heard the whole conversation between him and Aerith. It was kind of hard not to when Aerith's voice had reached a whole new octave as she reprimanded the man. Yuffie silently cursed the florist for ruining her Sunday eyeful of Squall shirtless as she made her way into the living room. "Thanks a lot, Aerith," she grumbled as she strode to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice.

"For what?" Aerith asked confusedly until she saw Yuffie beginning to drink the juice directly from the carton and slapped herself on the forehead, already having forgotten her previous question. "Yuffie, don't do that. It's disgusting!"

Quirking an eyebrow, Yuffie rolled her eyes and pulled a glass down from the cabinet. "It's not like _you're_ going to be drinking any, Aerith," she muttered as she poured herself a glass and put the carton back into the refrigerator. By now, Squall had wandered back into the kitchen, wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt, a smirk on his face as he saw Yuffie also being rebuked by the florist. Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him.

"I assume you came over for some other reason than just to yell at us, Aerith," Squall prompted as he went back to preparing the French toast, cracking a few eggs into a bowl and beginning to beat them.

Shaking her head, Aerith sat on the stool at the counter and briefly rubbed her forehead. "I came to invite you two over for dinner tonight since Cloud just returned last night," she announced cheerfully. "Sort of a 'Welcome Home' dinner."

Squall stopped what he was doing to turn around and look at her, a perplexed expression on his face. "I thought Cloud wasn't coming back for another two weeks?"

"So did I, but he turned up at my doorstep last night," Aerith explained, remembering the silly vampire costume her husband had been wearing. "Didn't Yuffie tell you–." She broke off when she remembered that Yuffie couldn't have told Squall since she hadn't actually been introduced to him. "Oh, Yuffie, I'm sorry I was so rude last night. But, I hadn't seen him for _months_."

Laughing, Yuffie came and sat next to the florist on the counter, ignoring the glare from Squall as she did so. He hated it when she sat on the counters. "Aerith, it's okay. You probably had a lot of things to... catch up on..." she said, winking as she did so and remembering the way Aerith had attacked the man lips first.

"Speaking of which, where _is_ Cloud?" Squall asked curiously.

"Uh... he's still sleeping. I would be, too, if Iris hadn't needed to be walked. We didn't get much sleep last night," the florist admitted quietly, blushing slightly at the implication but fighting it back down when she remembered that she was a grown woman and really had nothing to be embarrassed about. Her husband had been gone for months and she had missed him. "Anyways, I'll see you two around seven?" she asked, heading towards the door but stopping to wait for their assent, which they readily gave.

After she was gone, Squall turned to Yuffie, his eyebrows raised. "So, Cloud showed up last night?"

Eyes brightening considerably and a broad smile coming across her face, she told him about what happened the night before when her and Aerith came back to the apartment. She even told him how she thought, at first, that florist was attacking an innocent trick-or-treater. Yuffie never even noticed that she had completely forgotten about the rain outside and all her memories associated with it.

* * *

Dinner that night at the Strife apartment was full of laughs as old friends were reunited and new friendships forged. At first, Yuffie had been quiet and shy around Cloud, not really knowing how she should act around him. That is, she was until she remembered him saying he swallowed a fang the night before when Aerith pounced him. And before she even thought about what she was doing, she had asked him if he ever found it.

Sputtering and blushing slightly that the teenager had heard his muttered response the night before, Cloud quickly told her 'no.' It took a moment for the humor of the situation to sink in and then both Cloud and Yuffie burst out laughing. Embarrassing as it was, they soon both realized that it had actually made quite an efficient icebreaker.

After they had eaten the dinner Aerith had prepared, during which Yuffie learned _why_ the florist rarely cooked as the chicken was overdone, the potatoes were underdone, and the rolls just _burnt_, the group had retreated to the living room where Cloud pulled out some pictures from his trip. The first picture happened to be of a group of men lined up in a boat. Nothing extraordinary until Yuffie noticed that their feet were sticking out of the bottom of the boat. "Are they... is that... are they trying to be the _Flintstones_?" she finally asked, blinking a few times as she took the picture and held it closer to her face, as though that would help it make more sense.

"No, it's a picture from the Todd River Regatta," the blonde told her, laughing and leaning back on the sofa with his arm around Aerith's shoulders; she was leaning against his side and had an arm draped around his waist. "It's a boat race in Alice Springs, Australia except they have it on a dry river."

"Still looks like the _Flintstones _to me," Yuffie mumbled, taking another look at the picture before she passed it on to Squall, who was seated in the chair next to her. "Don't you think so, Squall?"

Cloud looked back and forth between the two roommates for a moment, wondering if Leon was going to explode like he normally did when anyone called him Squall. The blonde knew as well as anyone that the man loathed the name for it brought back memories of his past, memories he would rather forgot. The expected rebuttal never came and the blonde gave his wife a confused look. She merely shrugged her shoulders.

"I thought you went to Europe, Cloud?" Squall asked as he looked at the picture in his hands, silently agreeing with Yuffie but not wanting to admit it out loud. "And, Yuffie, I'm sure if you were to tell them," he gestured towards the men in the picture, "that you think they look like the _Flintstones_, they'd be insulted."

"And? What are they gonna do?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows and laughing a little. "Sic rabid kangaroos on me?"

Cloud rummaged around in his pictures for a moment before producing another one and handing it to Yuffie. "Nope, probably those," he said, pointing to the massive crocodile sunbathing on the bank of a nameless river. "And, Leon, I _was_ in Europe. But, I had to make a trip down to Australia as well and managed to catch the Todd River Regatta on my free weekend."

Yuffie was still staring at the massive reptile in the photo, gulping loudly as her eyes drifted over to the open mouthful of teeth. "They... uh... really have those in the rivers down there?" she asked hesitantly, her indigo eyes wide as she thought about coming face to face with one of those crocodiles.

"Yep," Cloud replied, pulling out another picture and then blushing as he quickly tried to hide it behind the others. "How did that one get in there?" he muttered under his breath, ignoring Aerith's giggling as she had seen the picture as he tried to hide it.

"Ooh... what is it?" Yuffie inquired excitedly, grabbing the picture from him with practiced ease. After all, she _had_ been a first rate pickpocket. At least, in her opinion she was. She looked at the picture and began laughing uncontrollably, bending over and clutching her stomach with one arm.

Squall looked over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the picture, which proved futile as she was moving around so much while she laughed that he was unable to see it. He finally reached over and grabbed the picture with little protest from her. Blinking a few times, he looked back and forth between the picture and Cloud before he found his voice. "Okay, Blondie. What did you do?" he demanded, resorting to the nickname he used for Cloud only when the blonde had done something particularly stupid. This photo was evidence of that fleeting stupidity Cloud sometimes possessed.

"Look, I just happened to be in Pamplona during the Running of the Bulls," he began, trying in vain to grab the picture from Leon, but the brunet simply kept it out of his reach. "And some of the guys talked me into trying it."

"And a bull got you in the butt," Squall finished for him, smirking as he did so.

"IT'S MY UPPER THIGH!" Cloud bellowed, making another lunge, and failing, for the picture.

Yuffie stopped laughing long enough to take another peek at the picture Squall held. "It looks like your butt to me," she chimed in, beginning to giggle again. "I bet that hurt, too, didn't it? Like, you couldn't sit down for awhile, huh?"

Cloud finally managed to take the picture away from Squall, but not before his dignity had been shattered. "Yeah, yeah... laugh all you want. At least I was brave enough to run with the bulls," Cloud replied smugly.

"You mean stupid enough?" Squall chided.

"Run with the bulls... gored in the ass... blondes really _do_ have more fun," Yuffie pondered aloud as her giggling subsided.

Aerith, who had been fairly quiet the whole evening, simply holding onto Cloud and leaning against him, finally decided to defuse the situation before the men's teasing turned into a friendly brawl which they were sometimes known to do. "Cloud, did you bring home the chocolate and FCUK shirt like I asked you, too?" she questioned quietly, lifting her eyes to his.

"Of course I did," he whispered as he leaned down to chastely kiss her lips, not caring that Squall and Yuffie were watching them. Slowly, he arose from the sofa and headed down the hall to their bedroom, emerging a few minutes later with a rolled up t-shirt in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. He handed both of them to Aerith as he sat back down next to her.

In turn, Aerith passed the two items over to Yuffie, smiling as she did so. "Here, Yuf. I had Cloud get these for you while he was still in Britain. And you've got to try the British chocolate. It's _so_ much better than the American stuff," the florist insisted, settling back up against her husband and she fought back a yawn.

"Aw, you guys! You didn't have to–," Yuffie began, only to be cut off by Cloud.

"We _know_ we didn't have to, but we _wanted_ to," he told her, remembering the way his wife had gushed about the teenager over the phone. She talked about her so much, that Cloud felt like he knew her before he even really met her.

Conversation continued for a while longer until Squall kept noticing the yawns Aerith tried and failed to hide. It was then he spared a glance at the clock and realized it was well after eleven o'clock and both he and Yuffie had to get up to go to the restaurant early the next morning. Not to mention the books he needed to balance that night as he had forgotten about them the day before. "Yuffie, I think we need to go," Squall announced, rising from his chair as he did so.

"Do we _have _to?" Yuffie pouted, enjoying herself more than she had in a very long while and really not wanting to leave. "Can't we just stay a little while longer?"

Not wanting to argue and seeing that both Aerith and Cloud were growing tired (Cloud had failed in suppressing a yawn as well), Squall did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He hoisted the girl into his arms and threw her over his shoulder, keeping one arm on her legs to keep her from falling. Giving Cloud and Aerith their goodbyes, he ignored the protesting girl on his shoulder as she whined and complained about him carrying her around like a sack of potatoes.

However, once they were out of the Strife apartment, Yuffie quit complaining when she realized that being over his shoulder _did _have it's advantages. She had an unobstructed view of his ass from her position, which, she had to admit, was just as nicely made as the rest of him. So, she was greatly disappointed when he dropped her from his shoulder outside his apartment though she did a remarkable job of hiding her disappointment with an angry scowl.

"You didn't have to do that, you know?" she grumbled, trudging into the apartment when he opened the door. "I would have left in a minute."

Squall didn't answer her for a moment, instead only raising his eyebrows and giving her a look that said he gravely disbelieved that. "Yuffie, we both have to get up early and I still have the books to balance..."

"Alright, alright," she muttered, hating that he was right, especially when she realized how sleepy she actually was. "And I guess I'll be going to bed then." She wandered down the hall, turning at her bedroom door to look back into living room and kitchen area to see Squall pulling out a briefcase that overflowed with a stack of papers when he opened it.

Hours later, Yuffie awoke to a rumbling stomach and an insatiable craving for the chocolate chip cookies she knew Squall had bought a few days before. But, as she crawled out of her bed, she realized that the kitchen light was still on and was dimly shining through to her bedroom. Looking at her clock, she realized that it was around three in the morning and Squall should have been in bed hours ago.

So, creeping down the hallway and into the kitchen to see what was going on, Yuffie found Squall asleep, slumped over the counter with his head resting on a stack of papers. She quietly approached him, stopping long enough to grab the cookies out of the cabinet and pour herself a glance of milk, and sat down next to him, carefully pulling the stack of papers out from under his head.

A black ledger was found lying open with his pen and hand resting on it, so she gently tugged that away from him as well and stared down at the figures with furrowed brows. She had always been good at math; it was the only subject she had actually excelled at while she had still been in school. And now that she was working in the GED study guide Squall had bought for her, her math skills were improving drastically.

Running her finger down the long list of numbers lined up on the side of the page, she found a few mistakes and quickly corrected them before continuing on. It took her a total of about half an hour to finish what Squall had started, the same amount of time it took for her to finish her cookies and milk. She quietly shut the ledger and placed it back into the briefcase along with the receipts and other papers Squall had pulled out, then shut the briefcase with a soft click.

She started to leave the room to return to her own, but stopped for a moment and stared at Squall as he shifted slightly at the counter. She couldn't help but admit how sweet he looked while he slept and she suddenly gave into an urge she had never had before. Tiptoeing back over to him, she gently brushed his hair out of his face before leaning down to kiss him on the forehead, much like he had done for her about a week ago.

Smiling a little and shaking her head, she then left him and finally returned to her room to catch, hopefully, a few more hours of sleep before Squall would awaken her in the morning.

* * *

_Author's Note: You know, there was going to be another thing happening in this chapter as well until I realized that it would take up so much room that it would require it's own chapter. Expect it next time. And, if any Australians are reading this, I mean no disrespect about the jokes Yuffie made about the Todd River Regatta. It was just the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the pictures and it sounded like something she would say. So, please don't hurt me. :::cringes::: Uh... it seems like there was something else I needed to say... But I can't think of it. Anyways, make an author happy and leave a review!_


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Say Goodbye to Dignit

_Author's Note: Yes, it's been about a week or more since I posted for this story. Really, I STARTED this chapter the day after I posted the last. But, life happens. I had a lot of sh–... STUFF to do for school. On the plus side, I finished Lullaby and can concentrate more on this story until I start writing On the Way Down._

_Ahhh... long chapter it will be, I think. :::shakes head::: I gotta stop talking like Yoda._

_By the way, I'm jumpstarting my muse, so forgive any crappiness that might appear._

_Hehe... uh... if any guys are reading this story, they might get a little embarrassed with this chapter... you'll understand why in a few minutes..._

_–Disclaimer: Don't own them. End of Story. But I want it to be a beginning, starting with Squall showing up at my door..._

* * *

_Chapter Fourteen: Say Goodbye to Dignity_

It was becoming a regular routine for Squall to have to wake Yuffie up, or _try_ to wake her up, every morning before work as she either never heard her alarm clock go off or she just incessantly hit the snooze button. He wasn't sure which it was. But, every morning from Monday thru Friday (she still wasn't working on Saturdays) would play out in almost the same manner.

Squall would go in there and at first call her name, as though that would work even though it had never worked before. Then he would nudge her; usually, the only response to that would be a sleepy groan and her flipping over. At this point, depending on her mood, a pillow might come around and hit him. Finally, he would have to physically pull the blankets away from her to prevent her from hiding from both him and the overhead light. She would finally get up after that.

Today was going to be different though. Squall could tell it when he walked into the room even though there was nothing there to suggest that it would be. Everything looked perfectly normal. Yuffie was lying in her usual tight, curled up ball, the myriad of blankets she slept with in the normal nest around her. He noticed that her alarm clock was propped up against the far wall, the red numbers blinking 12:00. Apparently, she _did_ hear the alarm clock go off and chucked it across the room in retaliation.

"Yuffie," he called from the doorway, knowing from previous experience that it wouldn't work. "Yuffie, come on. It's time to get up." Flipping the light switch on his way into the room, Squall blinked a moment to let his eyes readjust from the darkened room to the now light-flooded room. He reached her bedside and gently shook her shoulder. "Yuffie, wake up!"

A tired indigo eye opened and stared at him for a moment before closing again. "Squall, please, just let me sleep," Yuffie moaned, not even rolling over like she normally did, but lying completely still. "Just go away and let me sleep."

"If you don't get up now, you won't have time for breakfast," Squall told her, knowing that had never failed to get her up once they had purchased some more sugary cereals for her to eat. He even backed up a little, thinking she would jump out of the bed at the mention of food, but she didn't. She simply lay there and stared at him.

"I'm not hungry," she whispered in a soft voice, curling herself up into an even tighter ball if that were possible. "I... I don't feel that well this morning and I don't think I can go to work today. So, please, I'm begging you, just let me go back to sleep." The uncharacteristic pleading tone of her voice normally would have made her ashamed, but not today.

Worry causing his brows to furrow, Squall knelt down beside the bed to get a closer look at her face, just now noticing how pale she was, paler than normal even. "You don't look so good," he murmured, reaching out a hand to place on her forehead to check for a fever, but not finding one.

"Gee, thanks for noticing," Yuffie grumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she did so and prying his hand off her brow. "Now, will you _please_ just leave me alone?"

"You don't have a fever," Squall muttered quietly under his breath, more to himself than to her, and continued to stare intently at her. He didn't like the paleness of her complexion; it worried him. To him, she looked worse than she had when he first brought her to his apartment. "Maybe we should get you to a doctor..."

Shaking her head, she momentarily closed her eyes and winced slightly in obvious pain, hissing sharply at the same time. "I'll be okay, Squall. Just..." she trailed off for a moment and clenched her eyes shut and pulled the blanket around herself tighter. "Just go to work and don't worry about me."

At her second sharp intake of breath in just the past few moments, Squall reached over and started to pull the blanket away from her. "Come on, Yuffie. It's not normal to be in this much pain with a cold or virus. You might have an appendicitis or some–." He broke off when she refused to let the blanket go, gripping it so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

"Squall, I will be okay. I'll be fine," Yuffie insisted, trying to keep a firm grip on the blanket, but another wave of pain made her loosen it just enough for Squall to pull it away. Before she could stop him, he started to pick her up despite her protests and feeble kicks. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm taking you to the hospital before you appendix or whatever–."

Taking a deep breath and rubbing her forehead, Yuffie interrupted him before he could continue on with his rant of what might be wrong with her. "_I have menstrual cramps, okay? Or do you want a full medical examination?" _she hissed, a crimson blush creeping up onto her cheeks. She really hadn't wanted to tell him what was wrong with her, but he just kept pushing the issue until she burst.

While Yuffie's face were turning red, Squall's was quickly losing it's color and his arms went lax, causing him to drop her back onto the bed. Luckily, it wasn't a very far drop and she simply glared at him when she landed. "Oh... uh.... um... do y-you need anything?" he stuttered slowly, desperately hoping she wouldn't send him down to the drugstore for anything embarrassing.

If she hadn't been in so much pain from the cramps, she would have laughed at the expression on his face. Instead, she just gave him a half-hearted smile and curled back up into her protective ball and pulled the blankets around her. "No," she whispered, shaking her head as she did so. "Just go to the restaurant and don't worry about me. I'll be okay."

Squall slowly walked out the door, straight down the hallway, through the living room, and out the front door without even stopping for his morning cup of coffee. Before he even knew what he was doing, he found himself knocking on Cloud and Aerith's apartment door. The florist hurriedly opened the door and let Squall into the apartment before rushing back into the kitchen to check on her breakfast. "What are you doing here so early, Leon?" she asked as she spread the cream cheese on her bagel.

"Yuffie has cramps," he sighed, running a hand through his hair before he rubbed it down his face. It paused at his eyes to rub them before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Tell me _again_ why I decided to let a teenage _girl_ live with me?"

"Leon, Leon, Leon," Aerith muttered, shaking her head as she bit into her bagel. "It's just _cramps_. Every woman gets them. I get them, Yuffie gets them, even Rin–," she broke off when she realized she was about to say a name that he had forbidden _anyone_ to say in his presence. "Every woman gets them," she repeated firmly as she left him in the living room and headed down the hall to the bathroom for something.

A very rumpled looking Cloud emerged from the bedroom across the hall and started towards the living room. "What are you doing here, Leon?" the blonde yawned as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

Aerith didn't give the brunet time to answer the question before her dulcet voice floated from the bathroom, where she was rummaging around the medicine cabinet, and answered it herself. "Yuffie has cramps and Leon doesn't know what to do about it," she called, a hint of humor in her voice.

"Run away, Leon, run far away," Cloud said in a conspiratorial whisper, leaning across the counter to make himself better heard to Squall, but hopefully not his wife. It didn't work. She started up the hallway just a few seconds after he had passed that information along with a scowl on her face.

"Give these to Yuffie," she muttered distractedly as she tried to push a bottle of Midol and a box of pads into his hands. Actually, she had no trouble making him hold the pills. It was the box of pads he seemed reluctant to take from her grasp. "Leon, they are pads. They're not going to bite you."

She was turning to face Cloud, her mouth open to reprimand him for his comment, when Squall interrupted her. "Can't _you_ take them over to her?" he practically begged, as he looked down at the items in his hands.

"LEON, you are twenty-six years old! Grow up!" the florist growled, turning the brunet around and pushing him towards the door. "And, no, I can't take them over there because I have to get down to the shop and open it after I deal with Cloud."

Before he realized it, Squall was out the door and in the apartment corridor, his own apartment door staring at him. He quickly opened the door and hurried inside before anyone could see him in the hallway; he really didn't want anyone to see what he was holding. The short trip to his apartment had never seemed as long to him as it did then.

Upon entering the apartment, he noticed Yuffie leaning over the kitchen sink, with one hand around her stomach, out of the corner of his eye. Hearing the front door click close, she turned to stare curiously at him, her eyes falling to the items in his hands. That's when Squall noticed a few tears on her cheeks and more welling up behind her eyes. "Hey," he murmured, setting the stuff down on the counter. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It just... _hurts_," Yuffie whimpered, clutching her lower abdomen with both hands and slowly shuffling into the living room. She grabbed the bottle of Midol on the way and read the back label after sitting down on the couch before pouring two of the pills into the palm of her hand and tossing them down her throat, swallowing them dry.

"You shouldn't take medicine on an empty stomach. It'll make you sick," Squall warned as watched her take the pills. She simply glared at him as she lay herself down on the sofa and drew her knees to her chest, pulling the blanket she must have brought from her room around herself as she did so.

"Well, I don't feel too well right now. And I don't see how it can get much worse than it already is," she snapped irritably as she grabbed the remote control and turned the TV on, flipping aimlessly through the channels until she found some old movie from the eighties playing. Really, she had no interest in the movie, but wanted something to _try_ and take her mind off the cramps in her abdomen.

He finally shrugged and wandered back into the kitchen, eyeing the box of pads Aerith had given him warily. The idea of them just setting on the counter in plain view unsettled him and he carefully picked them up, as though they would hurt him, and carried them to the bathroom. It was at this moment he was exceptionally glad he had his own bathroom in his bedroom. "There are some things not meant for male eyes," he muttered to himself as he set the box of pads down on the counter next to the sink.

After going back into the front half of the apartment, Squall sat on a stool at the island counter in his kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee while he read the paper. He had been sitting there for just a little over half an hour and was just preparing to leave the apartment to head to _The Rustic Oven_ when his eyes caught Yuffie lurching to her feet and rushing down the hall to the bathroom. What followed was a series of gags and choked coughs as she retched the few contents of her stomach into the toilet.

A few minutes later, she weakly stumbled out of the bathroom, hobbled back to the couch, and gingerly lay back down, a few whimpers escaping her throat as she did so. Squall rose from his stool and walked over to her, kneeling at the end of the couch and trying to keep his hands from brushing the hair out of her face. "I–," he started, only to be interrupted by Yuffie.

"I don't want to hear," she snarled tiredly, assuming he was going to say _I told you so_ like most other people would. Or, at least, like the people she had known before. "You were right. You win. Now just leave me alone."

"I was _going _to ask if you wanted me to cook you anything for breakfast," Squall explained slowly, wearily rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Oh," Yuffie said simply, her tone slightly apologetic for her snappish nature. "I... uh... aren't you going to work?" A look at the clock showed her it was nearly past time for him to be going, yet he was still here and offering to cook for her.

Sighing, Squall rose to his feet and looked at the clock himself. He hadn't really realized it was so late until now. But, if he were to leave her like this, alone all day in the apartment, he would never forgive himself. "No. I have stuff I can do here today or over the phone," he finally replied, already picking the phone up off the base to give his assistant manager, Julian, a call. "Is there anything you want to eat?" he asked as he called the restaurant, hoping Julian would be there already.

Yuffie waited until he was through with his phone call before she answered him, thinking about his actions the whole time. He confused her to no end. Sometimes, he could be as cold as the icy wind that cut through your coat and nipped at your skin, like he was when he had left the costume competition only a few days ago. Other times, he was so sweet and caring that it made her almost want to melt, like he was right now and when they had watched scary movies together. He was such an enigma–.

"Yuffie!" Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Squall stared down at her, the phone placed on its base once more and him waiting for her answer about breakfast. He wondered briefly if she was okay, considering the way she had almost completely zoned out for the brief amount of time he was on the phone. "Breakfast?" he prodded.

"Uh... just some toast," she muttered distractedly when she snapped back into reality. For that brief span of time that she had been lost in thought, the cramps didn't feel nearly as bad as they did now. And, truth be told, she really didn't feel like eating _anything_ but would force something down just so she could keep the Midol she so desperately wanted down.

The rest of the morning passed rather calmly; Squall managed to make Yuffie eat two pieces of toast and she immediately took another two Midol down with that, which helped to ease, but not stop completely, her cramps for a couple hours. He then learned very quickly why Cloud had advised him to run earlier that morning.

Since he had the spare time, Squall had decided that he would spend a few hours searching online once more for the necklace with his family's crest on it. But, as he searched the internet, he absentmindedly began drumming his fingers upon the table, tapping out the _1812 Overture_ without really thinking about it. He was nearly through with his improvised version of the symphony when he looked up and saw a pair of venomous indigo eyes glaring down at him as Yuffie stood in front of him.

"What?" he asked innocently and confusedly as he tried to decipher _why_ she was glowering at him like that. As far as _he_ knew, he had done _nothing _wrong. However, looking into her eyes, he realized that he must have done something.

"I was asleep," she growled lowly, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as she scowled at him. "It doesn't hurt when I'm asleep." A glimpse of the still perplexed expression on his face would have clued most people into the fact that he had no idea what she was talking about. She decided to elaborate for him. "I was asleep, that is, until you decided to perform a concert over here by _banging _your fists on the table!"

Now Squall was really confused. First of all, he had only been tapping his finger lightly upon the wood. Secondly, it didn't sound that loud to him and he was right there were the noise was. And, finally, he wanted to know how in the world the light tapping of his fingers on the surface of the table had managed to wake the teenager up when the loud, annoying buzz of her alarm clock was unable to most days of the week. "I–," he started to apologize, but stopped when he saw her nearly double over in pain, her arm clutching weakly at her stomach.

"Dammit," she hissed loudly, trying to make her way back over to the couch. Apparently, the small effect the Midol had upon her was quickly wearing off. She was taking tiny baby steps across the room as the bigger steps made the cramps worse when strong arms picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.

Squall carefully set her down on the couch and quickly picked up the phone, dialing the number he had memorized for Aerith's floral shop. "I don't know much about this, but I really don't think that normal," he muttered to Yuffie as he impatiently waited for the green-eyed florist to pick up the phone.

Yuffie just lay there curled up in a ball once more, only half listening to his one-sided conversation with Aerith. But, when he snapped his fingers in front of her face, she began to pay attention once more. "What?" she whispered hoarsely, trying not to cry _again_, but it just hurt so much.

"Aerith wants to know if it's normal for your cramps to be this bad," Squall demanded, holding a hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone. At Yuffie's nod, he relayed the answer back to the florist, then paled as she apparently asked another question. "Uh... she also wants to know how heavy the... uh... blood flow is."

Groaning, Yuffie buried her face in her hands, just as embarrassed as Squall, if not more so. This was something _really_ she did not want to discuss with him, even if he was only asking because of Aerith. "Heavy," came the reluctant and muffled reply from her hands.

After relaying that answer to the florist as well, Squall talked to her for a few more minutes before finally hanging up. "She's... uh..." He paused for a moment and gulped. "She says she's setting you up an appointment with a gynecologist," he finally managed to get out, saying it all in a rush.

"Great," Yuffie muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes and sighing loudly. She watched as Squall left the room and then came back a moment later with Demi in his arms, handing the cat to her. "What?" the teenager asked in confusion, looking back and forth between the cat and Squall.

"Before she hung up, Aerith said it might help if you put a cat in your lap and make it purr," he explained, going back over to his computer which still sat on the table. "And Demi purrs more than Sydney."

Biting her lip and deciding it was worth a try, Yuffie sat up a little bit and placed the cat in her lap, petting her beneath the chin and behind the ears. Those spots on that particular cat were almost like instant purr buttons; just barely touch her there, and she would be purring. It wasn't long after that, that Yuffie noticed her cramps began to lessen and she managed to fall back asleep with the cat still purring in her lap.

Squall, having learned his lesson from earlier, made sure he was perfectly quiet while she was asleep, hardly even daring to move.

* * *

Just a little over a week later, Squall found himself sitting in the waiting room of the gynecologist's office, imagining ways to pay Aerith back for this. After she had made the appointment for Yuffie, the florist had _promised_ to take the teenager herself and save Squall the embarrassment. But, that morning, Cloud had somehow managed to twist his ankle and Aerith _insisted _that the blonde would need her assistance. A low growl escaped Squall's throat as he decided that perhaps it was _Cloud_ he should be mad at.

A few minutes ago, Yuffie had been nervously fidgeting in the chair beside him while she filled out the forms the receptionist had given her. But now, Squall was alone in a waiting room full of women, young and old alike. And he felt extremely self-conscious as he waited for Yuffie to return so he could leave. It was bad enough having all those women stare at him when he had walked through the door with Yuffie. But, at least then, he had known someone in the room. Of course, I might have been worse if he _had_ known one of the other women in the waiting room.

Sighing and running a hand through his long locks of hair, Squall rose to his feet and headed towards the exit, asking the receptionist to tell Yuffie where he was when she came out. Outside, he took a deep breath to help sooth his frazzled nerves. He had never thought he was one to _get_ frazzled nerves until the week before.

For three days that week, Yuffie's cramps had been bad enough that he refused to leave her alone in the apartment. And in those three days, he had learned about a woman's menstrual cycle than he would _ever_ want to know. He had also found enough things in the bathroom to make him regret not taking the extra few steps to go to the bathroom in his bedroom. Unfortunately, what he had found was enough to make him wonder how a woman of her diminutive size could produce that much menstrual blood.

He didn't ponder that thought long, immediately pushing it out of his head as soon as it came to mind. Frankly, it terrified him.

Squall didn't know how long he was pacing around outside the medical office when Yuffie peeked her head out the door. "Uh... Squall?" she called softly, looking down at the ground rather than his face. "I kinda forgot my wallet at home and need you to pay for this... I can pay you back when we get home. I have the money."

Pinching the bridge of his nose and not wanting to go back in there, Squall reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, tossing it to her in the process. "Just take that and pay for it," he muttered, watching her as she stared at the wallet in shock.

"Um... Okay," Yuffie said confusedly, surprised that he was actually trusting _her _with the very wallet she had stolen from him a little over a month ago. "Are you sure?" She had to make sure; she didn't want to be accused later of stealing anything from him.

"Yes, I am _not_ going back in there," he stated firmly and leaving no room for argument. He watched her meekly step back inside the office before he softly murmured the rest of his statement. "Besides, I trust you."

A few minutes later, Yuffie reemerged from the office and they silently started walking towards his car. The drive back to the apartment appeared that it was going to be as equally silent as the walk to the car, even with Yuffie flipping through the radio stations in an attempt to find something they _both_ liked.

Finally finding the silence to be unbearable, Squall decided it was time to end it. "Well, that was embarrassing," he muttered, not noticing that Yuffie had turned her head to face him and staring at him. "I've never been so embarrassed in my life," he continued, still oblivious to her facial expression.

"You were embarrassed?!" she asked incredulously, her stare quickly becoming a glare. "_You _were embarrassed?! How do you think I feel?!" Shrilly, her voice raised a few octaves and she didn't even realize what she was saying until it was too late. "At least you weren't the one lying on a table in a _porno position_!"

Considering the way his thoughts towards the teenager had been going the past couple of weeks, that was the _last _thing he needed to hear from her and he temporarily lost control of his car, nearly driving it up a telephone pole. An incredible feat, really, when the fact that he usually drove rather slowly was taken into account. He parked his car there for a minute and rested his forehead against the steering wheel while Yuffie continued to glare at him. "Yuffie," he finally muttered, "just shut up."

Hurt, Yuffie shut her mouth with a snap and turned to look out her window, just watching all the people walk down the sidewalk. She felt the car slowly start back up again and Squall pulled back into the traffic, but she refused to look at him. "Stop at the drugstore," Yuffie whispered as she remembered the prescription for birth control pills the doctor had given her, telling her that they would help with the cramps.

Sighing, Squall silently did as he was told and waited in the car for her as she dropped her prescription off. He hadn't meant to sound so cruel when he told her to shut up, but with the way his mind was working these days, he _really_ didn't need to hear anymore about her doctor's appointment. Yuffie returned to the car a few minutes later and they drove the rest of the way in silence.

* * *

It was around midnight that night when Squall gave up on trying to sleep and gave into the urge to get something to drink. He and Yuffie had hardly spoken to each other since they had returned from her doctor's appointment and it was making it hard for him to sleep. He didn't like having her mad at him; the reason _why_ it bothered him so much not even coming to mind. His feelings towards her confused him and he didn't even bother trying to sort them out; it would only confuse him more.

He soon found himself in the dark kitchen, rummaging around the refrigerator looking for the carton of milk he knew was _supposed _to be in there, but not finding it. That was when he heard a voice from behind him. "I have insomnia, but what's your excuse?"

In his surprise, Squall jumped at the sound of Yuffie's voice and bumped his head on the top shelf of the refrigerator. Hissing in pain, he clutched the top of his head and turned around to find her sitting on the opposite counter, eating ice cream directly out of the tub with the milk he had been searching for sitting next to her. "That hurt," he muttered, trying not to curse as he had been getting onto her about language since she had moved in with him.

"Want me to kiss it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and digging into the tub for another bite of ice cream.

Squall was a mere inch away from telling her 'please do,' but managed to stop the words before they came out of his mouth. "Get your butt off my clean counter," he instead reprimanded, trying to get his thoughts into some semblance of control. He watched her slid off, inwardly wincing when he noticed her nightshirt, still one of his flannel shirts, rode up slightly and revealed her upper legs. He really didn't need that right now.

"Sheesh, Squall. It's not like I'm naked or anything," Yuffie muttered in annoyance, walking over to sit on one of the stools at the island since he seemed to have issues about his counter tops.

Before he could reign in his thoughts, his mind flew to what she had said earlier in reference to her doctor's appointment: '_You weren't the one lying on a table in a porno position.'_ No, that thought really wasn't helping matters. In fact, he dropped the glass he had just pulled out of the cabinet and watched as it fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. Sighing, he grabbed the broom he had stored in the nearby pantry and began sweeping the pieces up as Yuffie stood there and watched him.

"Smooth move, Squall," she teased as she took another bite of the ice cream, savoring the taste. It was her favorite flavor, something called _Chocolate Truffle Explosion_ that had bits of chocolate truffles mixed in with the chocolate ice cream and rivers of fudge running through it as well. All in all, it was literally a chocolate explosion.

"Put that in a bowl," Squall grumbled as he handed her a bowl from the cabinet when he reached in to get himself another glass. He glared at her when she simply set the whole tub of ice cream into the bowl and continued to eat out of the tub. "Nice, Yuffie. Real nice. I'm sure that's on Aerith's list along with drinking orange juice out of the carton."

Smirking, Yuffie pointed to his current state of attire: nothing but his boxers. "And I'm sure Aerith would just _love_ to know that you're corrupting me by walking around like that," she threatened as she defiantly dug into the tub once more for another bite.

Squall sighed and massaged his temples as he sat down on the stool opposite hers. "I won't tell if you won't tell," he finally stated as he pulled out a spoon from the nearby drawer and stole a bite of her ice cream.

Yuffie raised her eyebrows and stared at him for a moment before deciding whether or not she should go along with his deal. "Fine, it's a deal," she agreed, sticking her hand out for him to shake and make the agreement final. It took him a moment, but he eventually did take her hand and shake it. "So, anyways, since you're up, I might as well ask you."

"Ask me what?" Squall prodded as he waited for her to continue, but she simply took another bite of ice cream and waited for it to melt in her mouth before she would continue.

"I've just been wondering what you had been planning on doing before you inherited your restaurant," she said softly, half afraid he would get mad at her. She never knew what he was going to do from one moment to the next. "I mean, I know you were going to college and all that, but what were you going to do until you inherited _The Rustic Oven_?"

Squall sighed and ran a hand through his hair, closing his stormy blue eyes in the process. "I'm not really sure. I hadn't picked out a major yet when it happened, but I think I might have gone into law school or journalism," he said after a few moments. "And if I had, I might have just _owned_ the restaurant and not really work there. So, I guess I'm glad that I did inherit it because I love working there. It just... it reminds me of _home_."

Nodding, Yuffie pushed the tub of ice cream closer to him when she saw him reaching over for another bite. "That sound so cool," she told him, unable to hide the little bit of jealousy in her voice. "I don't really know what I'm going to do once I _do_ get my GED. I guess I'll just try and get a job as a receptionist somewhere."

"Don't do that, Yuffie. Don't cut yourself short. You would hate doing that. At least take some classes at the junior college and _try_ to find something you would enjoy doing," Squall insisted, but when he suddenly remembered the way she had finished balancing the books for him, even finding a few mistakes he had made in there, he continued. "Maybe you should try accounting. And, if you do and if you like it, I can always use a new accountant to do my books since I apparently have trouble doing them."

Letting out a short laugh, Yuffie agreed with him and they ate the ice cream for another few minutes in companionable silence before Squall broke it. "So, why did you run away in the first place?" he asked quietly, his eyes finding hers and holding her gaze.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just got tired of being shuffled around from place to place all the time," she admitted slowly with a touch of resentment at the foster families. "It just seemed like none of them really liked me. I mean, I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with, but give me a break. I was only four years old when the courts shoved me off onto the first available foster family and _they _only kept me for a few weeks, claiming I was too _emotional_." She sighed loudly here, pushing the ice cream away from her completely and dropping her chin to rest on her arms, which were setting atop the counter and crossed. "_My parents had just died, for crying out loud! Of course I was emotional!"_

__"Yuffie, you don't have to–." He started to tell her that she didn't have to tell him anymore, but she kept going as though she hadn't heard him.

"And then the next family said I was too hyperactive. Then I was too annoying, then too depressing. _I was always too something!_" she hissed, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes. After a few moments, she composed herself and sat back up. "So, I finally just had enough and left. I sold almost everything I owned just to get a bus ticket to come here." She sighed sadly and shook her head. "I was a delusional thirteen year old thinking I could find a way to support myself. And, well... look how that turned out."

"You told me before you don't regret it," Squall whispered, watching as she pushed back any tears that remained behind her eyes. But, both the tears and the tone of her voice told him that she did regret it.

Shaking her head, Yuffie stood up from her seat and carried the half-melted ice cream back to the freezer. "The only thing I regret is that when I got here, and realized that there was no way I could support myself, I pawned my mother's necklace," she whispered, taking a deep breath and keeping her back to Squall. "It wasn't worth much, it was just a little bronze medallion with the Japanese symbols of love and hope on it hanging from a chain, but it was the only thing I had from her." Yuffie started to walk out of the kitchen, but stopped and paused for a minute at the entrance to the hallway. "I kept telling myself that I would find some money and get it back, but it never happened."

Squall watched her as she left him alone in the kitchen, wondering how someone who seemed so happy most of the time could be so depressed deep down inside. It amazed him that she was able to keep this side of herself so carefully hidden behind that happy-go-lucky facade. He also realized that he seemed to be the only person she had ever shared this with.

* * *

_Author's Note: Ahhhhh.... just over 6,000 words and, actually, I had promised someone that it would be up by midnight last night, but when I started falling asleep at the keyboard and STILL had about half of this chapter to go, I decided I might better get to bed._

_Anyways, I hope you're still enjoying the ride. Things will start picking up in the next chapter. Yes, believe me, they will. I've been wanting to write the next chapter ever since I started this story. Okay, I'm going now. So, leave me a review and I'll be a happy camper._


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Accidentally in Love

_Author's Note: I really have no idea when I'll finish writing this chapter. I have two exams this week and I still have yet to study. But, I have the writing bug and sometimes, it just can't be ignored. Much like the PS2 bug, which grabbed me yesterday..._

_I think this is going to be ANOTHER long chapter since I am DETERMINED to get this one particular scene into THIS chapter._

_By the way, this is a REPOST of chapter 15, so if it seems familiar, that's why. But, Obsidian Ideals brought some things to my attention, as well as a few other reviewers who felt the end of this chapter was too rushed. I _think_ I have fixed that. Or fixed it as much as I can, anyways, considering that I have certain things that have to happen at a certain time._

_–Disclaimer: Let's see. This the fifteenth chapter. Maybe by some miracle, I've won the lottery and bought the rights to KH. Or, maybe I just bought the rights to Squall... Yeah, I just need the rights to him. They can keep the others. _

* * *

_Chapter Fifteen: Accidentally in Love_

__Yuffie didn't like the looks everyone was giving her that day at the restaurant. Well, not everyone; the customers weren't giving her that look. But, almost _all_ of the employees would look at her and then smile strangely at her. Especially Kairi and Sora, who had _somehow_ managed to be demoted yet again. Yuffie didn't even know there was something below dishwasher, but when Sora broke quite a few dishes as dishwasher, Squall simply handed him a broom, bucket, and mop, telling him to keep the floors _and_ bathrooms clean. For a moment, she wondered why Squall simply didn't fire the teenager, but then realized that no matter how cold-hearted the man might seem, inside he was the complete opposite.

Shaking her head, Yuffie chased her thoughts away and concentrated on not tripping as she carried a tray full of drinks to her table. She really didn't want to repeat the fiasco that had occurred her first day working there and had yet to do so in the time since then. Riku walked past her, giving her his trademark smirk as he led another party to their table. Yuffie mentally added that smirk to the growing list of looks she was receiving.

After giving her table their drinks with a the big, bright smile she had learned to plaster on for the customers, Yuffie glanced suspiciously at Kairi and Riku, who were whispering to each other and shooting glances at her. Just as she was about to make her way over to them and demand to know what was going on, the women's restroom door flew open and hit her in the right arm. A spiky brown head peeked around the door to see who he bumped into. "Sora, I swear..." Yuffie threatened as she rubbed her upper arm and glared at the boy.

"The truth comes out..." Sora began, his blue eyes wide with what looked like shock and a little fear, "women are _not_ any cleaner in the bathroom than men!" He suddenly noticed the look on Yuffie's face and backed up a little bit when he realized that he had hit her with the door. "Hey, Yuffie, I'm sorry. It was an accident, y'know?"

Narrowing her eyes, Yuffie began to contemplate ways to get back at Sora but stopped when she decided it might be in her best interest to strike a deal with him. "I'll tell you what, Sora. I won't _hurt_ you if you tell me what's going on around here today. Deal?" Of course, she hadn't been planning on hurting him anyway, but fear seemed to help with this particular teenager.

"Oh, that! Well, you see, there's this big–." He was broken off by Kairi slamming her hand over his mouth and smiling sweetly at him, but her indigo eyes silently threatening him. Riku came up a few seconds later and slapped the back of Sora's head in a friendly reprimand.

"Sora?" Kairi said in a sugary-laced voice as she slowly took her hand off his mouth. "Can I see you in the kitchen?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his arm and dragged him through the restaurant to the double kitchen doors.

Yuffie wryly raised an eyebrow at their retreating backs before turning to glare at the still smirking Riku. "I nearly got it out of him, you know," she muttered, shaking her head as she heard a muffled giggle coming from the kitchen. It sounded suspiciously like Sora, and when she looked at the kitchen doors again, she could vaguely make out Kairi tickling him through the window. "I swear, they act like they're dating sometimes."

"That's because they _are_ dating, Yuffie," Riku replied, rolling his eyes and starting to walk back to the restaurant's entrance.

"That's allowed?" Yuffie asked confusedly, turning back to glance at Sora and Kairi through the window again. Looking back at Riku, she noticed that he had turned as well and simply had one eyebrow raised as though he were waiting for her to continue. "I mean, Squ- er, Mr. Leon doesn't mind if you date your coworkers?" Yuffie was having a hard time remembering to call Squall that in public, but after he had admonished her a few weeks ago for calling him _Squall_ in front of his employees, she found it much easier to remember.

Riku sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand before running it through his the silver hair that still caused Yuffie to wonder where he got it from. "As long as there's no public display of affection, Mr. Leon doesn't care what we do." Without another word, Riku turned on his heel and hurried back to the entrance where a party of four was patiently waiting to be seated.

It was a few hours later when Kairi came trotting up to Yuffie, who was quietly taking her much needed break at an empty table with her head resting on her folded arms. The lunch hour business had slacked off and there was a good two hours before the dinner business would arrive.

Oblivious to the red-head walking up behind her, Yuffie tiredly stared at the half-empty glass of tea sitting on the table in front of her. A hand falling on her shoulder caused her to jump, knocking over the glass in the process and spilling half-melted cubes of ice and tea across the table. "Kairi," Yuffie moaned after seeing who it was as she started to wipe up the mess. "Don't sneak up on me like that." The irony that she did the same thing with Squall never even came to her mind.

"Sorry, Yuffie. But Mr. Leon told me to find you," Kairi explained quickly as she pulled a rag from her apron pocket and began helping Yuffie wipe the table clean. "He told me to tell you that he wants to see you in the kitchen." She paused for a moment, then tapped her lips with one finger before continuing. "He seemed kinda upset about something."

Running a hand through her raven hair and trying to think of what Squall could possibly be angry with her for, Yuffie hurried off to the kitchen, Kairi following close behind her. She pushed through the double doors to find the room beyond completely dark, the blinds on the windows even shut to block out the little bit of sunshine that could be found on cloudy November days. "Uh... Hello?" she called out tentatively as she took a step into the room and reached out, placing a hand on the counter top she knew was there to help orient herself.

As soon as Kairi entered the kitchen and the door swung closed, bright lights filled the room and several of the staff popped out from behind the cabinets and counters. "SURPRISE!" they yelled loudly while Sora pushed a cart carrying a large birthday cake on it across the room. Eighteen green candles stood against the white frosting of the cake, already lit and beginning to drip wax onto the cake below.

In shock, Yuffie covered her mouth with one hand, her indigo eyes lighting up in the smile that was hidden by her hand. "How did you...?" she started to ask, but looking around the room, her eyes landed on Squall, leaning nonchalantly against the back wall and smirking.

"Your birthday was on your job application," Squall stated matter-of-factly as he pushed himself away from the wall to join everyone else surrounding the cake. "Were you really not going to tell anyone that today was your birthday?" His question was asked quietly when he had finally reached the group and whispered so that only she could hear it.

"Yuffie, blow out your candles before they melt all the way down!" Sora interrupted excitedly as he stared helplessly at the candles as they slowly dwindled away. He appeared almost panicked at the thought of the candles melting down into the cake until Kairi placed her hand on his forearm and leaned over to whisper something in his ear; he calmed down considerably after that.

Taking a deep breath, Yuffie blew all the candles out in one breath and started giggling as she saw Sora nearly attack the cake with fork and knife. "Calm down, Sora," she laughed while shaking her head and picking up a knife to cut her own piece of cake. "It's not like it's going to run away or anything."

Everyone managed to get a piece of cake and stood around eating it while chatting with the others. No one except Yuffie noticed that Squall had left the kitchen to handle things out front since most of the staff were busy with the cake. But, after about half an hour, he had come back into the room and broke the party up, sending the waiters back into the front and putting the chefs back to work.

Yuffie was just about to leave the kitchen when a hand on her shoulder pulled her back in, making her stumble backwards in the process. But, before she could hit the ground, her back landed against something that felt like a warm, solid wall. It turned out to be Squall's chest. "Are you okay?" he asked as he lightly gripped her upper arms to hold her steady until she found her footing once more.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered as she took a step away from him and turned to face him, confusion etched on her face. "Uh... what did you want, anyways?"

Squall ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck, sighing lightly as he did so. "It's your birthday. Did you really think I'd let you go back out there and work on your birthday?" he finally asked as he removed the hand from his neck and used it to prop himself against the door frame.

"Squall, it's just my birthday," Yuffie replied, rolling her eyes and about to head back out the kitchen door, but stopped to say one more thing. "It's not a national holiday. My birthday comes and goes every year and it just means that I'm one year older. It's not a big deal."

His hand grabbed her upper arm once more and gently pulled her back into the kitchen, and out of the way of the waiters coming in to give the chefs their customer's orders. "That's why we're going out to dinner tonight, Yuffie. Because it _is_ your birthday and it _does_ only come once a year," Squall insisted, his hand still on her arm and his thumb gently massaging the flesh. That is, it was until he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand to the counter behind him.

Yuffie shivered slightly when the warmth of his hand left her arm and the cooler air of the restaurant hit it. It was comforting the way his thumb was rubbing against her skin, and she didn't even realize until then that she needed or wanted comforting. But, she supposed, it could have to do with having the impromptu birthday party sprung upon her. The last one she could remember that she had actually enjoyed was the day she turned four years old, just a distant memory in a past from long ago.

Taking a deep breath, she let out a drawn out sigh to clear her head of those memories. She really didn't need to be thinking of them right now. "Okay, Squall. You win," she finally consented, nodding her head and reaching around to untie her apron. "Where are we going, anyways?"

"It's a surprise," he whispered, already walking over to where Julian stood, overlooking the chefs' work. From Yuffie's line of vision, the assistant manager didn't seem too pleased with the idea of Squall taking off work _again_. Ever since she had moved in with him, he hadn't been working from before opening to after closing six days a week like he had before, taking off by four or five most evening. And, Julian, it seemed, had been taking up a lot more work than he was previously used to.

It was only for a few minutes that Squall spoke with his assistant manager, giving him directions for what to do the rest of the night before he came back to Yuffie and led her out the back door and to his car.

* * *

Stepping into the shower in his bathroom, Squall began to wonder _why_ exactly he had felt inclined to take Yuffie out for dinner tonight. The thought had never even entered his head until about five minutes before he told her. Sure, it was her birthday, but he was never one to place much stock on celebrating birthdays. The only celebration his own birthday had been receiving for the past five years had been the cake Aerith would buy from the local bakery and force on him along with a card from both her and Cloud.

Perhaps it was because Yuffie was still young and had already been through such hardship in her life that made Squall want her to celebrate her birthday. Maybe this was his means of making up for the horrible life she had had even though none of that had anything to do with him whatsoever.

Shaking his head, Squall braced his arms against the shower wall and let the hot, needle-point spray run through his hair and down his back. Since her birthday dinner _was _a last minute thing, they really needed to get to the small Greek restaurant he was planning on her taking before it got to late for them to get a table. At least it _was _Monday night and the place shouldn't be _too_ crowded. He knew from experience with his own restaurant that Friday nights and the weekends were the busiest times of the week.

As he lathered the shampoo into his hair, a loud meow came from outside the shower stall and Squall peeked out the frosted glass door to see Sydney sitting on his haunches and glaring at his master. "Sorry, Sydney. You're going to have to wait until I'm finished," he muttered as he pulled his head back into the shower and continued to wash his hair.

Squall hadn't even realized the cat had come into the bathroom with him until just now; usually that particular cat avoided this room at all costs as he had become accidentally locked in there once when he was a young kitten. While rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, Sydney began crying again, this time his cries louder and more desperate sounding and accompanied by the cat throwing his side against the door.

"Sydney! Enough!" Squall yelled through the shower door, unwilling to get out and drip water all over the floor to simply let the cat out of the bathroom. If the cat had been stupid enough to hide in here, he could be patient enough to wait for his master to finish showering. Or, at least those were Squall's thoughts at the moment. That is, until Sydney had had enough and stood on hind legs, pressing his weight down upon the commode handle and successfully flushing the toilet.

The roaring yell Squall released as the water became scalding hot was enough to travel through the apartment to Yuffie's room, where she stood in front of her mirror and held up for inspection the dress Aerith had _insisted_ on buying her on their initial shopping trip. She had to admit that the dress would look considerably better on her now than it had at the store, probably because she had filled out more in certain areas now that she actually had enough food to eat on a daily basis and wasn't near the starvation point any longer.

But, at the sound of Squall's yell, Yuffie forgot about her reflection, dropped the dress she was holding to the floor, and dashed out of the room, down the hall, and, without thinking, into his bathroom to see if he was okay. Apparently he was, as he was standing next to the shower stall with a squalling cat in his hands. But, with his hands already occupied, he had nothing to hold a towel up with, which he hadn't even thought of since he never dreamed Yuffie would come barging into his bathroom, and he was standing there completely nude.

Simultaneously, Yuffie squeaked, covered her eyes, and blushed while Squall dropped the cat and grabbed the blue towel off the rack, immediately wrapping it around his waist. "Uh... Yuffie?" he prodded, slightly nervous, as she continued to stand there with her hands over her eyes.

Yuffie slowly brought her hands down from her face after peeking through the fingers to see that he was more or less decent. Or, at least, more decent than he had been a moment before. "I- I... I heard you yell and I thought I might better come check on you and make sure you weren't hurt," she explained, stuttering as she did so and trying to keep her eyes _off_ of the damp chest in front of her by focusing on his eyes instead. But that only made her blush deepen, so she decided the floor had a very interesting pattern and stared at it. "And... And... I'm sorry."

"I'm fine. Sydney just decided to flush the toilet while I was taking a shower," he explained, glaring at the cat who was still sitting at his feet and seemed to be almost grinning at his master. A few minutes of awkward silence passed and Yuffie was still standing there in front of him. "Yuffie? I do need to finish my shower."

"Oh!" Her blush deepened as she realized she was just spacing out in his bathroom while he stood in front of her with nothing but a towel on. She slowly backed out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaning against it when she heard it click. "I wonder if I should get a second look, just in case I missed something," she whispered to herself as she started to slide down the door to the floor.

But the door suddenly began to open and she found herself falling backwards, catching herself on the doorframe while a black and white cat came flying out of bathroom. The door closed once more and, this time, she heard the click of the lock as it was turned. Shaking her head, Yuffie tried to chase away the image of what she had just seen, but it stubbornly remained.

What she _had_ just seen only reinforced what she had thought when she first saw him shirtless, of his body being closer to a marble statue of a Grecian god than human. Water had run in small rivulets down his chest, leading her eyes lower to where the towel just covered his skin, gripped tightly at the side in one hand, covering what she had seen only moments before. It was her first time to see a man completely nude, and, well, she had no complaints about his physique. Yuffie felt her face heat up at that thought as another blush covered it and she was glad this time Squall couldn't see her crimson face.

Following Sydney out of the room, Yuffie rubbed her forehead and _tried _to forget what she had just seen as she walked back into her own room to finishing dressing for dinner.

When both Squall and Yuffie finally emerged from their respective bedrooms, they met each other in the hallway, both staring at the other, Yuffie flushing slightly and lowering her head as the image of him nude returned from the recesses of her mind where she had pushed it. She quickly fought the blush down though when she realized that he was acting like it never happened.

Peeking from downcast eyes, she instead concentrated on what he was wearing, a little shocked a what she saw. Squall had forgone his usual blue jeans and white t-shirt for a pair of black men's dress pants and a light blue button down shirt tucked into his pants. But what Yuffie wore nearly took Squall's breath away. It was rare for him to see her in anything other than blue jeans and baggy shirts, or the flannel shirts she continued to steal from him and use for night shirts.

However, tonight she was dressed in a knee-length, black dress that clung provocatively in all the right places. The narrow black straps of the dress met behind her neck, both contrasting and showing off the pale creamy flesh of her shoulders. As Yuffie started walking down the hall, Squall noticed that the back of the dress dipped low, but was criss-crossed with narrow bands of fabric. And the high heeled shoes she wore, which strapped around her ankles, added a few inches to her height.

Squall didn't realize he was still standing in the doorway to his bedroom until Yuffie turned to him, quirking an eyebrow as she looked at him. Rubbing his eyes and then pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb, Squall brought himself back to reality and strode down the hall to the living room where she waited.

"So," Yuffie began, placing her hands behind her back and trying to rock on the balls of her feet, but found that to be difficult in high heeled shoes. "Where are we going?"

"To this little restaurant I know," he said cryptically, walking past her and to the coat closet but stopping with his hand on the doorknob. "I just hope you like Greek" He opened the closet door and reached inside, but instead of pulling out her jacket like Yuffie expected him to do, he instead pushed past them and pulled out a box wrapped in green wrapping paper. "Happy Birthday, Yuf."

Her eyes widening in surprise at more at the shortened version of her name than at the present, Yuffie hesitantly took the box out of his hands. "What did you just call me?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow at him as she carefully unwrapped the gift.

"I don't know... What _did_ I just call you?" he asked, perplexed and struggling to remember the name he had just used. He _thought_ he had called her Yuffie, but apparently he hadn't or she wouldn't be asking him.

"You called me 'Yuf,'" Yuffie said simply, shrugging her shoulders and placing the wrapping paper on the counter. "It's okay, though. I just never had a nickname before and it sur–." She broke off when she opened the box to find a smaller version of his leather jacket, the jacket she had been secretly pining for. Speechless, she just held it out in front of her and stared at it.

For a moment, worry set into Squall's mind that she didn't like it as she still hadn't said anything and was just staring at it. He had been certain that she had wanted one. After all, he had seen the way she would stare longingly at his own jacket and had even worn it around the apartment on occasion, when she claimed he kept the thermostat set too low. "If you don't like it–."

He didn't get to finish his sentence as she launched herself against him and hugged him tightly around the waist. "I love it, Squall," she murmured against his chest, tightening her grip for a moment before releasing him. And, as soon as she did that, she slipped her arms into the jacket and pulled it around her shoulders, snuggling her face down into the collar. The only thing missing from _this_ jacket was Squall's scent, which she had grown to love. Not that she would ever tell _him_ that, but she did love his distinctive scent.

"You ready to go?" Squall asked softly, pulling on his own jacket and trying not to laugh as Yuffie snuggled into her jacket with her eyes closed. At her nod, he opened the apartment door and, without realizing it, offered her his arm as they walked down the hall to the parking garage.

After a short drive to this little Greek restaurant Squall had been talking about, during which they spoke few words and instead listened to the radio, Squall parked his _Jaguar _in the parking lot behind the restaurant and walked Yuffie to the door, once more offering her his arm. Yuffie shivered slightly in the cool November air as they made their way to the entrance, huddling closer to Squall to keep the wind from nipping at her so much.

Once inside, luck was with them and they were seated almost immediately, their hostess placing the menus on the table and leaving them to themselves. "So," Yuffie began as her eyes began to skim the menu, trying to decide what she should order. "Any suggestions?"

"The lamb is good," Squall told her as his own eyes scanned the menu, not aware of the look he was receiving from the teenager across from him. After a moment, he felt her staring at him and he lifted his eyes to find hers wide and a hurt look on her face. "What?"

"How can you eat lamb?" she asked incredulously, picturing the little white animals innocently scampering through the field while someone with a butcher knife chased after them. "They're just babies! You can't eat them!"

Throwing his head back and letting out an aggravated sigh, Squall closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "I happen to like lamb," he muttered, bringing his head back up to look at her. "You probably would, too, if you tried it." The look on her face told him that she would _not_ be eating the lamb that night, not even wanting _him _to eat the lamb that night. "You are _not_ going to guilt me out of eating the lamb, Yuffie."

"No, I can't stop you from eating it if that's what you _really_ want to eat, even though it _is_ just a helpless baby animal," she muttered as she sighed and continued to look over the menu, finally deciding on trying the Chicken Athena.

The waiter came a few minutes later to take their drink orders, leaving to fill them, and returning quickly with those and to take their order for the meal. Squall started off by ordering them both a wilted green salad with feta cheese, then ordered Yuffie's Chiken Athena for her, and _started _to order the braised lamb for himself, but at the look on her face as soon as he said 'lamb,' he quickly changed his order to the Swordfish Souvlaki. But the smile Yuffie gave him made it all worth it. And that was when it hit him.

He was in love with her.

As soon as that thought came to mind, Squall began to choke on his drink, coughing and sputtering. How could he love this little waif of a girl, someone he had only known for little more than a month? But, the facts were there. It was solely for Yuffie that Squall changed his order from lamb to swordfish, something he would _never_ have done for anyone else. Even when Aerith had sent him pamphlets that went into great detail over how they make veal, he still refused to give it up. Yuffie, however, was able to make him give up lamb with just a simple look.

He knew he had been growing closer to her as the days passed, but he never _dreamed _he was in love her. It was just a friendship he had been telling himself. Even when his thoughts of her turned to not so pure thoughts, he simply blamed them on animal instinct. But, now, he couldn't deny the fact that he was in love with her.

Now he just had to figure out what to do about it.

* * *

A few days later, the night before Thanksgiving, Yuffie found herself at the end of the sofa with her legs curled up beneath her and her GED study guide resting on her thighs. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she stared at the graph on the open page, lifting one hand to rub her forehead as she tried to figure out the math problem accompanying the graph. Normally, she had no problems with math, but this one she just couldn't solve.

"Squall?" she called over her shoulder, knowing he was sitting at the kitchen counter with his laptop, as usual. "Can you help me with this? Please?" She smiled as she watched him rise from the stool he was sitting on and walk into the living room, taking a seat beside her and leaning over so he could look at the problem. She was half afraid he would tell her to do it on her own as he had been what she had begun to label 'Cold Squall' ever since her birthday.

"Okay, what's the problem?" he asked quietly, trying to concentrate on the book in front of them and _not_ on Yuffie. It had been hard on him the past few days, ever since he discovered that he loved her. And he tried not to show it, even pushing her away and giving her short, curt answers when she asked him anything, anything to keep his emotions in check.

After pointing out the problem to him and having him explain it, Yuffie started to try to solve it, but found she was missing her pen. "Uh... Squall, have you seen my pen?" she questioned as she looked around herself on the couch and in between the cushions.

Squall did see it. Apparently, she had placed it in her cleavage without thinking about what she was doing and had forgotten where it was. He started to tell her where it was, but wondered exactly _how _you tell someone their pen is in their cleavage. So, instead, he simply reached over and pulled it out.

The look on her face was priceless, a mixture of shock and embarrassment at having _him _pull it out for her. "Um... thanks, Squall," she stuttered, lowering her eyes back to the book in front of her, expecting him to return to his computer now that she no longer needed his help. But he didn't; he continued to sit beside her, seemingly in thought about something. Not wanting to disturb him, she just went back to quietly studying.

Beside her, Squall was lost in his thoughts, wondering if he was insane for thinking himself in love with someone eight years his junior. But, then again, people always said that love knows no boundaries, so wouldn't that make it feasible for him to be in love with someone that much younger than him? It had been awhile since he had felt like this, but it was there, waiting to erupt no matter how much he pushed it away.

Turning his eyes to Yuffie, he stared at her profile, drinking in all her features from her indigo eyes to the way she was biting her lip and furrowing her brows in concentration as she tried to solve another problem. Her voice interrupted his thoughts, causing him to lift his eyes to meet hers.

"What are you staring at?" Yuffie asked bluntly, raising a hand to her face and wondering if perhaps some of the powdered sugar from the donut she had eaten earlier was on her face.

"You," Squall said simply, gently pulling the study guide away from her and placing it on the coffee table. Throwing caution to the wind, he decided to take a chance, unable to stop himself. Those eyes were driving him to the brink of insanity as they gazed innocently at him, begging him to kiss her. Squall slowly leaned forward, placing a hand on either side of her, one on the back of the couch and the other on the arm of the couch, effectively trapping her between his arms.

"Uh... Squall?" Yuffie stammered nervously, her eyes darting between the arms on either side of her and stormy blue eyes of the man before her. She had a feeling of what was about to happen, but she wasn't sure if she could trust her intuition. After all, he _had _been acting cold to her for the past few days; surely he wasn't about to do what she thought he was about to do.

She was wrong. He was going to do what she thought he was. And when his lips met hers, she was more than surprised.

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, I hope the repost is better than what I had before._

_Thank you to Obsidian Ideals for pointing some things out to me. And, yes, the vagueness of Yuffie's reaction is part of the cliffhanger. And I do hope I made Yuffie's reaction of seeing Squall in the shower more plausible and realistic given her age. ::::crosses fingers:::: And I tried to un-rush the ending of the chapter, at least, as much as I could._

_And I don't expect reviews for this repost because most of you reviewed before and would be unable to re-review this chapter. _

_And, yes, I am justified to say that Squall is only eight years older than Yuffie. Because, you see, Squall's birthday is in August and Yuffie's is in November. So, in Kingdom Hearts, Squall could have turned twenty-five in August while Yuffie was still sixteen, and then the events of KH could take place between August and November when Yuffie would turn seventeen. See? So, only EIGHT years apart by my count. :::grins:::_


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Maelstrom of Emotions

_Author's Note: Now that I'm actually getting somewhere in this story, I'm HOPING I can get chapters out sooner. Not sure though. It depends on school. Anyways, on with the show! Long chapter, methinks 'twill be._

_Okay, peoples, I REPOSTED chapter fifteen on sometime on Thursday, so you might want to go take a look at that. I didn't change much. Just a little with the "shower scene" and then some at the end._

_And I just REPOSTED this chapter because I woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to lengthen the ending of it. :::sigh::: Cursed muse!_

_And all of you should be very thankful to the Vulpes Lapis because she guilts me into getting off my lazy butt to write. Or, really, since I have to sit down to write, I guess she guilts me into sitting down on my lazy butt to write. Now if I could only guilt HER into writing...._

_–Disclaimer: If I had the rights KH, I would somehow figure out how to bring video game characters to life (or just find the guy who modeled for Squall) and keep that godly man locked up in my room._

* * *

_Chapter Sixteen:_ _Maelstrom of Emotions_

Shocked, indigo eyes flew open and stared at the half-lidded stormy blue eyes in front of them. That is, until the soft caress of his lips upon hers lulled her into melting into the kiss and her eyes slowly closed. All that Yuffie could think about at this moment was the feel of Squall's lips on hers, all other thoughts and doubts pushed into the back recesses of her mind.

As Squall leaned closer, Yuffie felt herself sink into the cushions behind her, pushing herself into the corner of the couch with both of his arms still entrapping her there. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was this moment in time, which had seemed to slow to an almost stop as soon as his lips had touched hers.

Lungs burning for oxygen, Squall finally released her mouth, moving his face away just enough to allow them to breath, but close enough for their breaths to mingle. Yuffie's eyes still closed, Squall noticed as the lids began to flutter slightly as she opened them, only to stare at him in shock and confusion. Bringing his hand that rested on the back of the couch over, he gently cupped her cheek and stroked the flesh with his thumb.

Yuffie's mind was racing, both from confusion and the breathless kiss she had just been given. Her heart was doing a good job of keeping up with her racing mind, feeling like it was trying to jump out of her chest as it thumped loudly and quickly. She still couldn't believe it. Squall had kissed her. _Squall_ had kissed _her_! And just when that thought managed to make its way through the muddled mess that was her mind, she noticed he was leaning in again.

Reacting on instinct, Yuffie dodged his mouth and ducked underneath the arm that still blocked her escape. And before Squall had a chance to stop her, she was running out of the living room and down the hall to her room, shutting the door as much as her paranoia would allow her. She leaned against the wall and slowly sunk to the floor, her hand flying to her mouth and gently touching her lips with two fingers.

She still couldn't believe Squall had just kissed her; her mind seemed to refuse to wrap around that thought. He couldn't possibly have meant anything by that kiss. Sure, he could be nice and sweet to her sometimes, but, other times, he was cold and seemingly pushed her away, especially within the past few days. Yesterday evening was a prime example of his cold attitude.

Wanting to do _something_ to help with dinner even though her culinary skills were essentially nonexistent, Yuffie had gone into the kitchen to ask Squall what she could do to help. However, she had inadvertently forgotten her scarf with the brass disc and had, thus, made no noise when she entered the kitchen. Squall hadn't even known she was there until he noticed her out of the corner of his eye looking over his shoulder at the vegetables he had been slicing.

The shock of suddenly seeing her there right beside him caused the knife in Squall's hand to slip and slice his thumb. He quickly shoved the thumb into his mouth to staunch the blood as he made his way to the water faucet where he could rinse the wound, glaring at Yuffie out of the corner of his eye. Apologizing, Yuffie reached into the running water to pull his hand out and see how much damage he had down. That was when he had coldly ordered her out of the kitchen.

And, now, the day after that event, Yuffie was sitting on the floor and leaning against her bedroom wall, confused as to why Squall would kiss her after acting so cold to her. Over and over the scene in the kitchen replayed itself in her mind, the way his voice had gone hard when he had hissed '_get out of the kitchen, Yuffie.'_ Yet, just a few days before that, on her birthday, he was so sweet to her when he gave her that jacket and took her out to dinner.

Everything was a chaotic mess in her mind with what appeared like no way to sort anything out. The one thing she _did_ know was that even though the kiss had confused her, she enjoyed it. And that only served to increase her confusion.

In the living room, Squall still sat in the same position on the sofa, his eyes trained on the hallway Yuffie had just ran down, as though he were expecting her to return. He knew she wouldn't; he had read the shock clearly enough in her eyes to know that much. And he couldn't blame her for being shocked at his actions since he was in still in shock as well.

When he had come over to help her with the study guide, he had no intention whatsoever of kissing her. But the way she had looked concentrating on the book and then looking up at him with wide eyes, he found himself unable to stop himself from kissing her. He had almost done so the night before, when she was examining the slice on his thumb, apology written all over her features. It was all he could do to order her out of the kitchen before stooping down to kiss her.

So, he should have been prepared for what would happen when he was sitting that close to her on the sofa. Knowing that he was in love with her, he should have known that being that close would only make him lose his self-control.

But, it was too late for all the 'should have's' and Squall slowly arose from the sofa, looking longingly down the hall as though he would like to follow Yuffie. Shaking his head, he decided that might not be such a good idea right now and, instead, he returned to his laptop computer to turn it off for the night.

Slowly making his way down the hall to his room, he lingered for a few minutes at her door, wondering if he should try and explain things to her. The door was open just a fraction of an inch, the most closed it had been since she had arrived and that made him decide that she wanted to be alone to overcome her fears to shut it even that much more than usual. So, rubbing his forehead, Squall continued past her doorway to his room, trying to push the doubts of his actions out of his head.

It didn't help that he could still feel her lips on his and the sweet, yet spicy taste of her still lingered there as well.

- - - - - - - - - -

A rogue shaft of sunlight made its way through the gray clouds lining the November sky and shot through the window to fall upon Yuffie's face, causing her to scrunch her nose and roll over. Her eyes fluttered open as she slowly awoke, a smile coming across her as she remembered what she thought was a dream. That is, she thought Squall kissing her was a dream until she realized she was still sleeping in the clothes she had worn the night before. Her confusion at the kiss had stayed with her until she had gone to bed, making her forget to even change into her pajamas.

As soon as she realized that the kiss was not, in fact, a dream, she shot straight up in bed as her eyes darted around the room, as though they were expecting Squall to be there in her room. But, no. She was completely alone in the room with the exception of the two black and white balls of fur at her feet, one of which was slowly uncurling and arching its back as it stretched.

Demi finished her stretch and climbed to her feet, tail switching slightly in the air as she made her way up the bed and to Yuffie. Distractedly, Yuffie reached a hand out to pet the cat while her mind was still thinking about the night before. The insistent 'meow' under her hand, though, was enough to bring her back to the present and focus more on the demanding cat who was now purring loudly.

It didn't take long for the cat to become satisfied and leap off the bed, trotting out the partially open bedroom door. Yuffie followed the cat's example, climbing off the bed and rustling through her dresser and closet for clothes to wear. Her sweatshirt, blue jeans, and undergarments bundled in her arms, she left her room and headed toward the bathroom to take her morning shower. She stopped at the bathroom door, however, and stared in bewilderment at the bathtub.

The tub was half full of water and sitting in that water was a frozen turkey, still in its packaging. Yuffie blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things before slowly backing out of the bathroom. She gave the turkey a parting glance as she headed towards the front of the apartment to get some answers from Squall as to _why_ exactly a turkey was sitting in the bathtub.

She found him in the kitchen, sitting at the counter to eat his bowl of cereal and read the paper. He only gave her a quick glance before returning his gaze to the newspaper in front of him. "You're up early," Squall muttered as he turned the page and folded the newspaper backwards at the crease.

Looking at the clock on the microwave, Yuffie realized with a shock that he was right. It was not even eight o'clock, yet she was already up and she didn't even have to work today since it was Thanksgiving. "I couldn't sleep with the sun shining in my face," she admitted truthfully as she remembered that ray of light hitting her face that morning.

"What sun?" Squall mumbled, pointing out the front window with his spoon. He was right. There was no sun out there, only dark gray clouds as far as the eye could see, making it seem like a typically dismal November morning.

"There _was_ some sun earlier," Yuffie insisted, setting her pile of clothes down on the counter only to have Squall look at them with a raised eyebrow. "And why is there a turkey in the bathtub?"

Sighing, Squall arose from the stool and carried his now empty cereal bowl over to the sink where he rinsed it out and left it sitting on the stainless steel surface. "Because I forgot to move it from the freezer to the refrigerator a couple of days ago to let it thaw and it thaws out faster in water," he explained as he turned around to face her, already seeing the question in her face that she was about to ask. "And I couldn't put it in the kitchen sink because I need the sink today."

"Oh... well, can I use _your_ shower this morning then?" Yuffie asked quietly, barely able to meet his gaze as he stared at her. As she waited for his answer, she couldn't help but notice that he seemed to have forgotten the kiss from the night before. He was acting like he always did; at least, like 'Cold Squall' always did, giving short and to the point answers with no real emotion behind his words.

Squall ran a hand through his hair as he sat back down at the counter, picking up the newspaper as he did so. He finally gave her a curt nod and watched as she scurried out of the room, nearly forgetting her bundle of clothes on the counter, and down the hall to his bathroom. He hadn't meant to be so short with her, but the memory of the kiss and her reaction to it prevented him from doing more. Since she apparently didn't reciprocate his feelings, he decided it would be best to act as though it had never happened.

At the other end of the apartment, Yuffie was just walking into Squall's bathroom, her senses overcome by everything Squall. There was a small pile of his clothing laying by the door, his razor setting haphazardly on the sink ledge, and the whole room was permeated with the smell of his aftershave. Yuffie rummaged through the medicine cabinet until she found that bottle and twisted the lid off, taking a whiff of it as soon as she did so. Her eyes closed in for a moment before she realized what she was doing and quickly put the lid back on the bottle and shoved it back onto the shelf.

Shaking her head and wondering at her actions, Yuffie shut the bathroom door nearly all the way shut then pushed the trash can against it to keep it from opening any further. It was something she had quickly learned to do to keep Squall's cats from pushing the door open all the way while she was bathing. Her paranoia still bothered her, but she felt she was getting somewhere with it now that she knew it was caused by her father beating her mother while she was locked in her room.

As she climbed into the shower and adjusted the water temperature to hot pinpricks, the kiss drifted back into Yuffie's mind and she realized that it had never actually left her mind to begin with, but had been sitting there the whole time and waiting for a chance to confuse her once more. It was all still there, the gentle touch of his lips, the way he leaned into her, the way he looked at her afterwards... everything was still there. And then there was this morning when he had barely acknowledged her until she asked about the turkey, and even then, he was kind of cold and short with her.

That only added to the chaos in her mind. If the kiss had meant something to him last night, wouldn't he have acted differently this morning? And if it meant nothing to him, then how were they going to continue with this living arrangement. "We have to talk about it," Yuffie muttered to herself, rinsing his shampoo (she had forgotten her own) out of her hair. So, quickly finishing her shower, she threw some clothes on and headed back towards the front of the apartment, not even bothering to towel dry her hair which was dripping water down her back and onto the carpet.

In the kitchen, Yuffie found Squall rummaging through the cabinets with a pad of paper in his hand while he wrote some things down on it. "Squall?" she called tentatively as she stepped off of the carpet and onto the tiled floor of the kitchen. He didn't seem to have heard her as he continued to push things around in the cabinet. "Squall?" Yuffie tried again, a little louder and a little closer to him this time, but he still ignored her. "Squall!" she finally shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder and making him face her. "We need to–."

"I need you to go down to the corner grocery for me," Squall interrupted, pushing the pad of paper into her hands which had a considerably long list of groceries upon it. "I forgot some things that I'll need for dinner tonight." He grabbed his wallet sitting on the counter and pulled out a few bills, silently calculating about how much the groceries would cost before handing her the money. "That should cover it."

Confused, Yuffie looked down at the list with furrowed brows, wondering _why_ he needed so much stuff. "But, Squall, it's Thanksgiving. Are you sure the store is going to be open?" she asked quietly, deciding that now might not be such a good time to broach the subject of the kiss since he seemed kind of harried at the moment with dinner preparations.

"The store will be open until noon. He doesn't like to miss the last minute shoppers," Squall muttered distractedly as he started looking through the cabinet again, as though he might have missed something. "But he will be busy, so you might want to hurry."

Yuffie nodded mutely, pocketing both the money and the list before going to the closet for her jacket. That was when she remembered her wet hair and dashed back to the bathroom to hastily dry it with the hair dryer. She knew that wet hair and cold air was just asking for Fate to stick you with a nasty cold or flu, the last thing she wanted right now.

It didn't take long for her short hair to dry and she was soon out the door, not realizing that Squall was watching her as she left. Sighing, he sat down at the kitchen table and buried his face in his hands. Her whole trip to the grocery store was a farce; there was nothing on that list that he absolutely needed today. He just needed her out of the house because being alone with her was almost too much. And he knew she wanted to talk about the kiss, he could read it in her eyes. He just wasn't ready for that yet. So, he walked across the room and picked up the phone.

- - - - - - - - - -

Two hours later, Yuffie stumbled out of the elevator at her floor and struggled down the hall with three paper sacks of groceries. "You so owe me for this, Squall," she muttered to herself as she fought with the bags and attempted to open the apartment door. But she just couldn't get the door knob to cooperate with her hand while still holding onto the bags. She settled instead for kicking the bottom of the door.

A moment later, the door was wrenched open and Yuffie strode in without even looking at who opened it. "Squall, don't you _ever_ send me to that hell hole on a holiday again!" she growled in a dangerous voice, then turned to glare at him only to realize that it was Aerith who had opened the door.

"Should I pass the message on to Leon or do _you_ want to tell him yourself?" the florist chortled as she shut the apartment door and took one of the bags from the teenager. She was already heading into the kitchen with the bag before Yuffie got over her embarrassment of mistaking Aerith for Squall.

"Sorry 'bout that, Aerith. I just wasn't expecting you over here so soon," Yuffie apologized, following the woman into the kitchen and placing her two remaining bags on the counter. She noticed Squall coming from the living room to put away the groceries, but she stood in front of him and pointed a finger in his face. "And, you! Don't _ever_ send–."

"I heard you the first time," Squall interrupted as he brushed past her, already reaching inside the bags and pulling out various items.

Fuming that he had just brushed her off like that, Yuffie marched over to the other side of the counter and glared at him. "And I'll have you know, a little old lady hit me over the head when I tried to grab the last can of cranberry sauce," she seethed, placing her hands on the counter to brace herself as she leaned forward. "So, needless to say, I didn't get any cranberry sauce."

"That's alright. I have one can already," Squall mumbled, not noticing that Yuffie's eyes were narrowing into dangerous slits as he said that. He did notice, however, that Aerith was slowly backing away from them and heading towards the relative safety of the living room where Cloud lay sprawled out on the sofa, watching the football game.

"I... You... But.... _You already have a can of cranberry sauce, yet you _still_ sent me out there to be beaned in the head by old ladies?!_" Yuffie snarled, feeling her right eye begin to twitch as she glowered at the man in front of her.

"I had to be sure there was enough for everyone," he explained calmly, turning his back to her to put away the groceries.

A frustrated half growl, half scream escaped Yuffie's throat as she beat her head on the counter top. "Squall, there are only four people here. How much cranberry sauce do you think we're going to eat?"

"Knowing you and your stomach, twenty cans wouldn't be enough." His back still turned to her, Squall didn't notice as she threw her hands in the air in exasperation and left the kitchen. He could, however, hear her footsteps as she angrily stomped into the living room.

Throwing herself onto the couch across from Cloud, Yuffie sighed loudly and crossed her arms over her chest. She had been planning on cornering Squall into talking about last night, but couldn't now that they had company, company that she hadn't expected until much later in the day. "I bet he did it on purpose," she mumbled under her breath as she rolled her eyes.

"Did what on purpose?" Aerith asked innocently from Cloud's side, wincing as her husband cheered loudly when his team scored a touchdown.

"Hm?" Yuffie asked distractedly, her mind still on Squall before she realized that Aerith had heard her. "Oh... I just bet he... uh... sent me to get cranberry sauce on purpose." Another roar from both the crowd on TV and the blonde in the living room was enough to make Yuffie glare at the man. "And why are we watching _football_, of all things?"

Cloud didn't even hear her question, his eyes trained on the television screen in front of him until a hand was waved in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Cloud. Anyone home?" Yuffie teased, now standing in front of him and obscuring his vision. Aerith was demurely covering her mouth as she giggled at her husband trying to look around Yuffie's body to see the screen, only to have the teenager move in front of his vision once more.

"Hey, this is America's favorite pastime," Cloud insisted, his voice sounding just a little bit whiny as he tried to continue watching the game.

"I thought baseball was America's favorite pastime," Yuffie teased, moving to block his vision once more. Really, she was surprised how quickly she and Cloud had become close friends, considering that they had only known each other for little more than three weeks. She felt closer to him than she did even Aerith, but, perhaps, that was because he still had that boyish immaturity about him whereas Aerith was utterly mature most of the time. He was kind of like the big brother she never had. Yes, that was the best to describe him, Yuffie decided.

"Baseball may be _most_ of America's favorite pastime, but football is _this _American's favorite pastime," the blonde insisted, reaching out an arm and gently shoving Yuffie out of the way. His team was running down the field for a touchdown and he jumped up, pumping his arms in the air. "GO! GO! GO! YES!"

Aerith winced and gingerly rubbed her ears as though her husband's overly enthusiastic reaction to the touchdown had hurt her ears. "I think I'm going to go see if Leon needs help in the kitchen," she muttered as she climbed to her feet.

"Yeah, I think I will, too," Yuffie said, raising an eyebrow to stare at Cloud as he continued to jump around and cheer. Making her way into the kitchen, she found Squall shaking a wooden spoon at Aerith and ordering the florist out of the kitchen.

"But, Leon, it's not fair that you have to do all the cooking," the green-eyed brunette insisted, trying to grab the spoon away from him. "I can help."

Pulling the spoon back away from Aerith's grasp, Squall shook his head. "No, Aerith. I've seen what you do to mashed potatoes. Do you really think I want that to happen to Thanksgiving dinner?" he demanded, smirking at her as he tried not to laugh.

"Please, Leon. Don't let her cook!" Cloud hollered from the living room.

"One more word out of you, Cloud Strife, and you won't see me cooking for you again!" Aerith called back before Squall could answer.

"Is that a threat or a promise?" the blonde chided, not knowing that his wife was angrily huffing into the living at that moment.

The whole time, Yuffie had been leaning against the counter and listening to the friendly banter between the three of them. A loud _thump_ followed by Cloud's 'ow' floated into the kitchen, causing the teenager to stifle a giggle. Rubbing her forehead, she looked over at Squall was busy cutting sweet potatoes into cubes. "So, do you need any help in the kitchen or not?" she asked once she had finally mustered her courage up to talk to him.

He gave her a look, raising a lone eyebrow and tapping his knife against the cutting board. "Yuffie, I own a restaurant. I've cooked more food for more people than this more than once in my lifetime. I think I can handle it," he told her before going back to the task at hand.

Holding up her hands defensively, she took a few steps backwards. "I was just asking. I mean, I _know_ I can't do much, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't need any help," Yuffie mumbled, turning to leave the kitchen since he was being so unsocial.

"Yuffie..." Squall began, about to say something about the night before, but then stopped mid-sentence and changed his mind. "Just keep Aerith out of the kitchen."

"Now, _that_ I can do." She gave him a bright grin and left the room, grabbing a deck of cards out from beneath the TV stand and dragging Aerith over to the dining room table for a game of spades.

Hours later, after the smell of roasting turkey filled the apartment and made Yuffie's mouth water, not helped much by the fact that she had skipped breakfast and had only an apple for lunch, Squall asked Aerith to set the table, ending the heated game between the two women. So, while the florist was arranging napkins and plates on the table, Yuffie meandered into the living room and was disgusted to find Cloud was watching the replay of the game on a sports channel.

"Cloud," she whined, giving his name a few more syllables than it originally had. "You've already watched the game. Can't _I_ watch something now?" She knew she was practically begging, but she hoped that pleading would work on the blonde. "Please?"

"Just a minute," he muttered distractedly, his eyes practically glued to the TV screen and the remote control in his hand. At the sight of the remote, an almost evil glint came into Yuffie's eyes and she launched herself at the blonde, grabbing the remote while he was still dazed and changed the channel.

She ended up sitting in his lap, holding the remote up over her head and out of his reach since he was sitting below her. "So much for football, huh, Cloud?" she crowed as she flipped through the channels until she found a cartoon she liked.

Cloud simply groaned and threw his head against the back of the couch, making no move to remove the girl from his lap. Like Yuffie, he had begun to consider her as almost like a younger sister. "Do we _have _to watch Johnny Bravo?" he grumbled, trying not to watch the cartoon, but finding his eyes drawn to it anyways.

"Yes. I like Johnny Bravo."

In the kitchen, Squall glared at the two and rolled his eyes. "They're such children," he muttered under his breath, not knowing that Aerith was behind him.

"What's wrong with that?" the florist asked confusedly, moving to stand beside him and watch Yuffie and Cloud fight over the remote once more.

"Just... well, just look at them. She's sitting in his lap and they're fighting over a remote. Doesn't that seem a bit childish to you?" Squall said finally, his eyes still on the two in the living room and not on the food he very nearly burned on the stove before he realized he had forgotten about it.

Aerith shook her head, causing her braid to sway back and forth as she smiled knowingly at Squall. "Leon, if I didn't know better, I would say you were jealous," she teased, never dreaming that he would take her seriously.

"Jealous? Jealous of what? Two children playing in the living room?" he scoffed, looking over his shoulder as he heard Yuffie squeal when Cloud grabbed the remote from her. He knew Aerith was right; he _was _jealous of the fact that Yuffie was sitting in the blonde's lap and not his own. He just didn't want to admit to his jealousy, neither to himself nor anyone else.

Laughing, Aerith left him alone in the kitchen while she continued to set the table.

Back in the living room, Yuffie finally managed to wrestle the remote back from Cloud once more, this time putting the TV on the channel of her choice and tossing the remote onto the couch across the room. That way, she decided, Cloud couldn't grab it again as long as she sat on him. "You know, you make a really comfy chair," she told the blonde, turning to smirk at him.

"I'm glad _you're_ comfortable since I'm not. Your bony butt keeps digging into my legs," Cloud grumbled disdainfully, trying to make another grab for the remote when he heard Aerith call them to dinner. He waited patiently for Yuffie to remove herself from him for a few moments only to find out that she didn't seem to be planning on moving herself. "Get up!"

"Nope. You're gonna have to carry me since you insulted my butt," the teenager declared, thinking the blonde would just push her off and make her walk. She was surprised when he actually gave in to her demand and stood up with her back against his chest and his arms under her knees, keeping her legs drawn up to her chest.

They made it to the dining room like that, with Yuffie giggling like a maniac and Cloud acting like her light weight was weighing him down and he pretended to nearly drop her a few times. Finally, he carried her to her chair and dropped her unceremoniously into it, causing the teenager to give him a mock glare. "Gee, Aerith. was he carrying you like this over the threshold?" she teased, her eyes having a playful glint to them.

"No, he's gotten _considerably _better at that over the years," Aerith admitted as she pulled her chair out and sat down, Cloud soon following suit and sitting down next to her.

"_That_ was better?!" Yuffie asked in disbelief, not noticing that since Cloud and Aerith were sitting beside each other on one side of the table, that Squall would be sitting next to her. That is, she didn't notice until Squall sat down and accidentally bumped his arm against hers. The touch was too much and she felt her face begin to flush, but she managed to get control of it and force it back down. No one else seemed to notice.

"Sorry," Squall murmured quietly, scooting his chair a little further away so he wouldn't brush against her, accidentally or purposively as the scent of her in this close proximity was intoxicating his senses. But, his accidental bumping into her as he sat down was just a prelude to things to come.

Throughout dinner, both Yuffie and Squall would find themselves brushing hands as they passed bowls, bumping arms as she leaned over towards him to grab something, and even hitting heads once when she dropped her napkin between them and they both went to retrieve it at the same time. Neither noticed that across from them, Cloud and Aerith were trying not to laugh loud enough to alert their attention.

After dinner and a few hours of playing cards once they were able to drag Cloud away from the TV and any replays of the earlier football game, Aerith and her husband finally said their goodbyes and made their way across the hall and into their apartment. Squall wasted no time looking at the clock to discover that it was after nine o'clock and muttered something about a shower, leaving Yuffie alone in the living room when she had just thought that would _finally _be able to corner him into talking about the kiss.

Sprawling out on the sofa and deciding she would have to wait until Squall emerged from the shower to talk to him, Yuffie turned the TV back on and flipped aimlessly through the channels for a few minutes, but was unable to find anything decent to watch. The only thing she could think of now that she was alone in the apartment once more with just Squall was what had occurred just last night on the same couch she was now sitting on.

"We _really_ need to talk," she muttered to herself, rising from the sofa and creeping down the hall to his bedroom. She slipped into the room and listened to the sounds of running water in his bathroom before deciding that it was safe. Slowly, she twisted the door knob and stealthily crept into the small bathroom, knowing that he most likely wouldn't hear her since he rarely heard her if she wasn't wearing her special scarf. She chanced a peek at the shower door, both glad that it was of frosted glass that prevented her from seeing anything and slightly disappointed.

Forcing _that _thought out of her head, she looked up at the mirror and noticed it was just right; the steam had fogged the glass completely and made it perfect for writing her message. So, taking one finger, she quickly wrote 'we need to talk' upon the mirror and then left the bathroom just as quietly as she had entered. Proud of her self, she returned to the living room and waited.

She didn't have to wait long before Squall came into the living room and she looked expectantly at him, but he simply ignored her and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. But, she saw him start towards the living room after that and decided that _now_ they were going to talk. Only, he once again didn't acknowledge her, simply walking past the couch to grab his book that was sitting on the table next to the chair.

Noticing that he was about to leave the room, Yuffie stopped him right as he began to walk back past her. "Squall, didn't you get my message?" she asked quietly, not looking up at him but instead examining the carpeting of the floor.

"What message?" Squall inquired innocently, knowing full well what message she was talking about. He had been surprised to step out of the shower and find that written on his mirror, yet he was still not ready to talk about it.

"The message I put on your bathroom mirror," Yuffie explained, blushing slightly as she inadvertently admitted to purposively walking in on him while he showered.

"The mirror defogged?" he said, hoping she would buy his lie.

When he didn't reprimand her for entering his bathroom and when she heard that almost questioning tone to his voice as he said that, she realized that he was lying. "Liar!" Yuffie insisted, standing up and pointing once more in his face like she had done earlier. "If you _hadn't _have seen that message in the mirror, you would have yelled at me for doing it. So you _must _have seen it. Now _sit down!_"

As soon as she had started pointing that finger in his face, Squall had tried to push past her. But she was too quick for him. Noticing that he was trying to leave, she reached out a foot and tripped him, causing him to fall backwards onto the arm of the sofa and successfully bruise his tail bone in the process. He grunted but tried not to let on that she had hurt him, instead only staring at her and crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, let's talk," he conceded as he moved from the sofa arm and onto the cushions.

Now that he actually wanted to talk, Yuffie found herself tongue-tied, forgetting all that she had carefully rehearsed that morning. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa from him. "You confuse me, y'know," she admitted, nervously twiddling her fingers in her lap. "I mean, one minute you can be so sweet and caring and then the next you're so cold and... and... _what did that kiss mean?_"

Squall was a little taken aback as her voice took on a strained note to it at the end, making him decide it was time to tell her the truth. "I... I think I'm in love with you," he stammered, watching as her eyes widened and blinked slowly a few times as she stared at him in shock. "But I'm not sure... I haven't felt that way in a long time," he quickly ammended.

A loud _whoosh _ of air was released from her lungs as she continued to stare at him for a moment. "Well... how can you be sure?" Yuffie asked, leaning backwards until she was up against the arm of the sofa. If his kiss from the night before confused her, then his abrupt confession just now nearly made her go into shock. Out of all the excuses she had expected to hear from him, that was the _last _thing that she believed he would say.

"I would kiss you, but I'm afraid you would run away again," he admitted, raising an eyebrow and looking imploringly into her eyes. He was surprised when she started inching down the couch towards him; he had been expecting her to run to her room again.

Yuffie couldn't believe what she was about to do. But, after all, the man had just admitted to possibly being in love with her. Another part of her mind argued that if he was in love with her, why had he been acting so cold towards her? She shut that part of her mind down and decided she would question Squall about that later; there was something she needed to do right now.

So, scooting until she was just next to him on the couch, she shyly looked up at him, finding herself trembling just a bit. But, before she could chicken out, she slowly stretched her face up until she could reach him and placed a soft kiss on his lips. The touch of lips was like it was the night before, only better because she wasn't scared and confused this time.

What started as a chaste kiss soon deepened as Squall brought his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. He readjusted both himself and her mid-kiss until he was lying on the sofa with her across his chest. His mouth soon left hers and trailed a few kisses down her jawline, smiling against her skin when he heard the few noises she made. But, he stopped kissing her when he noticed that she was struggling with a yawn.

"You're yawning, Yuffie... am I boring?" he teased, moving his lips to kiss her short, ebony hair, finding himself becoming a little sleepy as well as the large dinner took effect.

"Don't blame yourself, Squall. Blame lack of sleep last night and the turkey," Yuffie muttered, trying to keep her eyes open. She really couldn't believe that she was falling asleep while Squall was kissing her. That was just inconceivable. But, the facts were there. Her eyes were drooping shut and yawns were coming more frequently even though she tried to stifle them.

Squall raised an eyebrow at her statement and looked curiously at her for a moment. "Lack of sleep?" he questioned, moving one hand to her lower back while the other gently stroked her upper back. "Why couldn't you sleep?"

Yuffie had the urge to roll her eyes, but kept it in check and simply lay her head down on his chest and closed her eyes. "Because I was confused, you idiot," she said fondly, making the last word not sound the least like an insult. "How do you expect a girl to re–." She was cut off mid-sentence by a yawn that she didn't know was coming.

Laughing softly, Squall repositioned them both once more so that he was lying on his side with his back against the sofa cushions and Yuffie was lying in front of him with her back against his chest. "Just go to sleep, Yuf," he whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek.

"Mm-kay," she muttered sleepily, eyes already closed and halfway asleep already. But, she was teetering on the edge of the couch and felt herself begin to fall. And just as she stuck an arm out to catch herself, she felt Squall's arm wrap around her waist and pull her closer, keeping her safe from falling on the floor.

It wasn't long after that when Squall slowly succumbed to the effects of too much turkey and fell asleep as well, his arm still around Yuffie and holding her tightly to his chest.

* * *

_Author's Note: Finally finished that chapter. Whew! Thought it would never get done. Anyways, I am tired and I am going to post. Review for me please._


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Threads of Destiny

_Author's Note: I reposted Chapter 16 about four hours after I first posted it. Just a lengthening of the ending scene. _

_Oh, Vulpes Lapis just started a new fic in the KH section called "Uptown Boys." Go read it._

_Note to Viewing Pleasure: Really, I think the only reason I chose "Johnny Bravo" as the cartoon Yuffie made Cloud watch was because I love Johnny Bravo myself. I just don't get to watch it often enough. :)_

_–Disclaimer: Yes, I own Kingdom Hearts. And, yes, I have Squall locked in my closet so I can get him anytime I want him. And, yes, I am delusional._

* * *

_Chapter Seventeen: Threads of Destiny_

Yuffie awoke to the feel of a solid warmth behind her back and without thinking, she snuggled herself up against it even tighter. She was still in that half-asleep, half-awake state of consciousness, struggling to go back to sleep fully. That was when the old grandfather clock Squall kept in the living room decided to chime the hour, three in the morning.

Realizing that the clock sounded much louder than it normally did, Yuffie's eyes fluttered open and she noticed that she was in the living room and not her bedroom as she had originally thought. Before she even had a chance to process _that_ thought, she suddenly remembered the few kisses she had shared with Squall and falling asleep on the couch with him. That would explain the warmth at her back and the heavy weight she just suddenly noticed on her waist, where he had held on to her to keep her from falling off the sofa. And there was a warm blanket covering both of them; Squall must have gotten up at some point during the night to get it and had climbed back onto the sofa behind her, managing to not wake her up either time.

She felt Squall shift slightly behind her and the grip around her waist tightened a little while his face buried itself in her hair. His warm breath on the back of her neck sent pleasurable shivers down her spine, something she had never felt before but found she liked the feeling. Carefully turning in his arms, Yuffie rolled onto her back so she could at least look at him as he slept.

But, as soon as she did that, Squall, who had been rolled against her back, now rolled so that most of his weight was resting atop her and his face was now in the crook of her neck. At first, Yuffie was a little scared with so much of him pressing her down into the couch, but that fear soon subsided and was replaced by a sense of security. It was kind of like he was protecting her with his own body, exposing his back to whatever danger there was in order to shield her from the same danger.

Yuffie rolled her eyes at the thought and silently reprimanded herself for thinking that. He had simply rolled over in his sleep, there was nothing more to it, she sternly told herself as she reached up the arm that he wasn't lying on and placed her hand on his back, gently stroking it. Even if his rolling atop her _was_ accidental, she still enjoyed the feeling. Turning her head towards his, she placed a soft kiss on his head, lips lingering in the mahogany hair.

That was when her brain decided to remind her of what he had said: _I think I'm in love with you_. That one, single sentence was enough to send her mind into a whirlwind of confusion. Sure, she had enjoyed the few kisses they had shared, and, yes, she found him unbelievably attractive... but _love?_ Love was something completely alien to her; she had no clue whether she loved him or not.

Before she could continue on with that train of thought, she felt Squall slowly shudder awake atop her and she unconsciously ceased stroking his back. He lifted his head from the crook of her neck, his sleep-filled eyes squinting slightly as he tried to focus on her face. That must have been when he realized he was lying atop her because he immediately rolled off and started apologizing. "Sorry, Yuf–," he started, but was cut off.

"Don't worry about. It was kinda comfy with all that weight," Yuffie admitted sheepishly, feeling a blush creep up her face. But, luckily, the only light in the room was from the green glow of the clock on the DVD player and her blush would go unnoticed.

"I'll keep that in mind," Squall murmured, quirking an eyebrow and leaning down to plant a small kiss on the tip of her nose. He pulled back, stifling a yawn and sleepily rubbing his eyes as he rested his head against the back of the sofa. "What time is it, anyways?"

"Just after three," she replied through a yawn, remembering the old saying that yawns were contagious. She suddenly realized that Squall was pressed as far into the back of the sofa as he could get and she was still wavering precariously on the edge, making her wonder how they had managed to sleep there at all during the night without feeling too crowded. "Squall?"

His eyes were already drooping shut, but he slowly opened them when she said his name and mumbled a sleepy "hm?"

"Squall, we're... uh... kinda crowded here. Maybe we should go to bed?" Yuffie suggested quietly, not liking the fact that he had little room to move. She, herself, didn't mind not having much space; she savored lying there next to him and sharing his warmth.

Reluctantly, he vaguely nodded his head; he had been enjoying the closeness as much as she had. Squall struggled to sit up, trying not to knock Yuffie off in the process, and stood up, stretching a little before reaching down a hand to help her up. He noticed she clutched her stomach and crossed her eyes for a moment as she sat up, probably an effect of eating too much the night before. "Maybe I should just roll you to bed... you ate three quarters of the turkey," he teased as he followed her down the dark hallway.

"Just let me grow my feathers in peace," Yuffie muttered back, stopping at her doorway and turning to face him as she leaned against the doorframe. "And, for the record, I didn't eat three quarters of the turkey. I only ate half of it." There was a smugness to her face as she said that, her chin slightly turned up and her lips turned into a playful smirk.

Squall stopped just inches from in front of her, looking down at her with his mahogany bangs screening his stormy blues eyes. "Just half of it, huh?" he whispered, raising one eyebrow as he leaned closer to her, his forehead nearly touching hers. He brought one hand up, slipping it behind her upper back, while the other hand traveled to her waist and gently pulled her closer until she was pressed against him.

Yuffie was fairly certain what was going to happen now as she brought her arms which had been slack at her sides up, one hand resting on his chest and the other finding its way over his shoulder and sifting through his hair. With breathless anticipation, she waited for Squall to close the minuscule distance between their lips, her eyes already half-closed.

When their lips finally did meet, it was electric. Where the few other kisses they had shared had been sweet and gentle, this one was charged with energy. Yuffie felt her mouth begin to respond in ways she hadn't known possible as the kiss continued and deepened. Feeling herself go limp, she was glad Squall had his arms around her or she would surely melt into a puddle on the floor.

As Squall released her lips, Yuffie's head slumped against his chest while she caught her breath. "I'm surprised," he murmured, stroking her back and burying his nose in her hair as he placed another soft kiss there. "My lips still work. I haven't used them for this in a long time."

"Yes, Squall. Your lips most definitely still work," Yuffie managed to say softly into his white t-shirt. "Believe me, they still work." Shyly lifting her head from his chest, she looked back up at him. That was when he again lowered his head to hers and while she was preparing herself for another breathless kiss, he simply placed a kiss on her forehead and slowly unwrapped his arms from around her.

He could sense the slight disappointment coming from the girl in front of him and he very nearly gave into the temptation to kiss her again. But, it _was _three o'clock in the morning and, although he had decided to shut his restaurant down for the rest of the weekend to give both him and his employees a break, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep very late. So, he had reluctantly released her from his grip and took a step away from her. "Goodnight, Yuffie," he whispered, reaching a hand up to cup her cheek and gently stroke the flesh with his thumb before leaning down to kiss the other.

"Goodnight, Squall," Yuffie murmured as she leaned into his hand and closed her eyes, smiling when she felt his lips on her cheek. But, then his hand was gone and she opened indigo eyes to watch him walk down the hallway to his room and then shut the door. Sighing happily, she retreated to her own room and shut the door most of the way. That was when she realized was still fully dressed and quickly changed into one Squall's flannel shirts.

The scent that met her nostrils was even more intoxicating than before, perhaps because she had smelled it up close and in person so recently. Furrowing her brows, she briefly wondered how the shirts managed to still smell like Squall even _after_ they had been washed. As far as she knew, he hadn't worn any of these shirts since she had been here. But, she was glad they smelled like him; it made her feel kind of like he was right here with her.

Sitting down on the edge of her bed, Yuffie suddenly noticed how cold and lonely her room seemed. After having slept most of the night on the sofa with Squall, she really dreaded having to slide into her own _cold_ bed. It made her regret suggesting they go to bed. Of course, she had been partially hoping that he would allow her to sleep in his bed with him, like she had on Halloween.

She slowly climbed to her feet, biting the inside of her lip and thinking about, perhaps, just asking him if he would let her. "It wouldn't hurt to try," she muttered to herself, already walking across the room and placing her hand on the doorknob. And before she could even stop herself, she was standing outside Squall's room and had her hand poised to knock on the door.

"Squall?" she called timidly through the closed door, crossing her fingers and hoping he wouldn't send her back to bed. But, he didn't answer her and she slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open, finding him on his side on the bed with one arm thrown out in front of him and snoring lightly. She blinked a few times, wondering _how_ he had managed to go back to sleep already when it hadn't even been a full ten minutes since they had parted at her doorway.

Calling his name once more and not receiving an answer, Yuffie silently debated whether she should just go back to her own room. That is, she debated it until a devilish smile came across her face and she simply decided to crawl into bed with him. If he didn't like it, he could easily tell her to go back to bed. Of course, he would have to be _awake_ for him to do that and he was anything _but_ awake at the moment.

So, creeping silently across the carpeting, Yuffie gently pulled back the covers and slipped into the bed with him, already feeling the warmth emanating from him and she was still on the other side of the bed. Slowly, she scooted across the bed until she was right next to him, lifting and moving his arm so she could place her back against his chest once more. She liked the feeling it gave her of having something warm and solid behind her. And she smiled when she noticed he had taken off his t-shirt when he had gone to bed; that made the feeling of his chest against her back even better.

"Yuffie?" Squall mumbled sleepily, raising his head and trying to keep his eyes open to look at her quizzically. "What are you doing here?" He really had no clue what was going on; only a moment ago, he had flopped into his bed _alone_ and now he awakened to find Yuffie lying against him.

At the sound of his voice, she stiffened, afraid he was actually going to send her back to bed. "I... uh... my room was cold and I was freezing in there, so I thought I could come in here and sleep," she lied, turning her face to look at him and praying he would let her stay.

"Okay," he muttered, laying his head back down and moving his arm to around her waist. "To keep you from falling off the bed," he explained before falling asleep once more. Yuffie's only response to that was to snuggle up even closer to him than she had been moments before, and she didn't bother to tell him that the edge of the bed was more than a foot away.

- - - - - - - - - -

A loud _fhump_ and the sudden loss of warmth as the blankets were pulled off his body awoke Squall, who quickly sat up and looked around the room, as though looking for any possible danger. He didn't see anything in the room and, rubbing his eyes, he wondered what the noise was and where his blankets had gone. That was when he vaguely remembered Yuffie crawling into bed with him in the early hours of the morning and he leaned across the bed to peer at the floor, where he found a Yuffie-sized lump tangled in the blanket.

The lump shifted and the blanket was slowly pulled away from her face, revealing a slight scowl as she looked up at Squall, who was still staring down at her, trying not to laugh. "You _had_ to get non-stick sheets, didn't you?" Yuffie grumbled as she sat up, gingerly rubbing the back of her head as it had collided with the bedside table on her way down.

"Maybe we should just make you sleep on fly paper," Squall muttered playfully as he lay back down on the mattress, pulling the remaining sheets and blankets on the bed over himself and simply stared at the ceiling. It was a strange feeling for him to actually let himself get close to another person after little more than five years of distancing himself.

Before he could contemplate the matter further, a tousled head of black hair rose from beside the bed and rested itself upon crossed arms on the mattress. "You could've helped me up," Yuffie complained good-naturedly as she stared at him, blowing a fallen lock of ebony hair out of her eyes.

Instead of giving a verbal answer, Squall simply reached one arm out, encircling her upper arm with his hand and hefted her back onto the bed. "Happy?" he questioned with raised eyebrows as she sat in front of him and snuggled herself back into the blanket wrapped around her.

"Mm hmm," Yuffie murmured, trying to work up the courage to give him even just a little peck on the cheek. Inwardly, she laughed. Last night, or early this morning really, he had given her a toe-curling kiss and _now_ she found it hard just to kiss his cheek. As she pondered this, she watched him with lowered eyes, noticing that he was staring at her as well. And just as finally found the courage to give him that little kiss, he was already climbing up out of the bed. "Where are you going?" she asked quickly, masking her disappointment with the curiosity she was known for.

"To get dressed and then to make breakfast," Squall answered simply, not realizing his tone was slightly cold out of habit as he grabbed a pair of blue jeans and white t-shirt from over the chair he had thrown them the night before. Normally, he would dress in his room, but since Yuffie was in there, he decided he would dress in the connecting bathroom instead.

Biting her lip, Yuffie kept her back turned from the bathroom door and instead studied the patterns on the blanket she was wrapped in. She had assumed that after last night, the so-called 'cold Squall' would disappear and be replaced with 'sweet Squall' who had kissed her. Apparently, she was wrong. Just as she was leaving his room to take a shower in the other bathroom, Aerith's words from little over a month ago came floating into her mind.

"_About three years after his parents died, Leon was engaged to a woman he loved deeply. He would've done anything for her. But, only a month before their wedding, she, too, was killed in a car crash. That was when he became Leon. Before then, he was still Squall. But after Rinoa died, he just felt like he had lost everything and wanted to start over. He hurried with his studies at school and then moved across town, as far away from Rinoa's memory as he could get. And he changed. He became cold and he refused to let anyone close to him."_

"The pictures..." Yuffie whispered to herself, remembering the photos she had found in his wallet the day she had stolen it. "He was so happy in them... that must've been the woman Aerith was talking about." Having been completely lost in her thoughts, she was surprised when she found herself in the bathroom already adjusting the water temperature with her clothes for the day hanging from the hook over the door.

By the time she had finished her shower and was getting dressed, Yuffie had come to the decision that she would ask Squall about the woman in the picture. And, maybe, just maybe, he would actually answer her and not become completely defensive about the whole thing.

The smell of bacon frying in the kitchen wafted down the hall and into her nostrils as soon as she opened the bathroom door. And, as if in answer to the smell, her stomach immediately made itself known with a loud rumbling.

With her nose in the air inhaling what her stomach considered to be an almost heavenly scent, Yuffie made her way into the kitchen, eyes darting around in search of the bacon. "Where is it?" she demanded with the slightly wild look that Squall had learned only came into her eyes when food was around.

"Where's what?" Squall asked innocently and confusedly as he shredded some cheese.

"The bacon! Where is it?" she demanded once more when she didn't see it either cooking on the stove or sitting on a plate. "I _know_ I smelled bacon. Where is it?!"

"In the omelettes," he explained, gesturing towards the food in question as they quietly sizzled on the stove. Turning the flame beneath the pan off, he sprinkled cheese over the top of them and then slid them off onto two plates and set them both on the counter top of the kitchen island. And before he could even ask, Yuffie had already poured them both a glass of orange juice and set them on the counter as well, soon followed by napkins and forks. She did all this without making a sound, something Squall should have been used to by now, but was still amazed.

He must have been staring at her without realizing it, for as soon as they sat down across from each other on the stools, Yuffie raised her eyebrows and stared back. "What?" she asked curiously, cocking her head to the side slightly.

"I was just wondering how someone who has such a loud mouth can be so quiet," Squall replied, upturning his lips in a small smile before looking down at his plate and starting to eat.

"It's something you learn to do when your survival depends upon sneaking up on people and taking their wallet before they know what hit them," she said quietly and a little ashamedly as she remembered the countless times she had done so.

A silence fell between them, neither really knowing what to say after that. Squall opened his mouth, about to apologize for bringing the subject up, but Yuffie unknowingly interrupted him. "Um... speaking of pickpocketing," she began, having decided that now would be a good time to bring the pictures up since it _was _because of her stealing his wallet that she knew of them. "Who's the woman in the pictures you carry around?"

"How do you know..." Squall started angrily, ignoring the way the girl in front of him cringed at his tone. "My wallet... when you had stolen it, you went through it looking for money..." Bringing his elbows up onto the counter, he rested his head in his hands and furiously rubbed his temples.

Swallowing, Yuffie closed her eyes and asked one more question, knowing she shouldn't but unable to stop herself. "That was Rinoa, wasn't it?"

"_How the hell do you know about Rinoa_?!" he said in a deadly hiss, his eyes turning icy and narrowing into slits as they glared at her.

"Aer-.. Aerith told me that she died in a car wreck and that... that she was your... fiancee," Yuffie stammered nervously, terrified of the Squall before her. This was definitely not 'sweet Squall' and far worse than 'cold Squall.' The only way she could describe this Squall was as 'livid Squall.'

Eyes having gone from icy to now blazing continued to bore into Yuffie, as though they could see straight through her and into her soul. "Aerith didn't tell you everything then? She didn't tell you that I killed Rinoa?"

Having literally jolted backwards at that, Yuffie had to quickly grip the counter top before her stool turned over. "_What?!_ she asked in disbelief, her eyes having widened considerably as they stared at him and begged him to deny what she had just heard.

"Let me tell you about it, Yuffie. Let me tell you about how I killed Rinoa."

_"Are you sure we should be heading out into this, Squall?" the brunette in the passenger seat asked as she rubbed her hands together in front of the vents, waiting for the heat to kick in and warm the car the icy interior of the car._

_"Everything will be fine, Rinoa. I know how to drive in weather like this. I was raised here, remember?" Squall reassured, reaching over with one hand to grip hers to help warm them. He kept his other hand on the steering wheel and his eyes on the road, watching as the small snowflakes hitting the windshield and melting on contact._ _"Besides, we promised your parents that we would be there eight."_

_Sighing, Rinoa ran one hand through her long black tresses, pushing the hair out of her face and turning to smile at her fiancee. "I know. It's just..." She trailed off, her smile wavering slightly as she considered something for a moment._

_"It's just what?" the young man next to her prodded, returning both hands to the wheel now that the heat had finally started to warm the car. _

_"It's nothing, Squall," she said in what she hoped would come out cheerfully and carefree, but still sounding worried about something. Before Squall could further interrogate her, she leaned over the seat suddenly and gave him a hug from the side. "I love you, Squall." Her voice cracked slightly as she said those words, as though she were holding back tears._

_At the amount of emotion present in her words, Squall jerked his head to the side to look at her. "I love you, too, Rinoa. You know that." He raised one arm to allow her body to lean against his before placing his arm around her back. It made driving a little awkward, but having her close to him made it all worth it. Lowering his head, he placed a small kiss in her hair, his eyes never leaving the road._

_They drove like that for a few minutes longer before Rinoa returned to her half of the car, her gloveless hands wiping away a few stray tears on her face. She noticed the concerned look Squall was giving her. "I'm fine, really, Squall. I'm just so happy right now," she told him, smiling, but not realizing that it was a sad smile._

_Before he had a chance to comment on her expression, he felt the car begin to spin out of control as it hit an ice patch he had been unaware of. Squall tried to regain control of the car, letting up off the brakes and gas as it would only increase the skid and turning the wheel in the direction he wanted to go._

_Then there was the blaring sounds of horns as the car crossed into the other lane of traffic and the bright lights of the headlights racing towards them. And the noises. The sounds that would forever haunt him. The sounds of ripping metal, cracking glass, and the one sound he would never forget: Rinoa as she screamed out his name._

_The next thing Squall was aware of was flashing blue and red lights above him and the sounds of people rushing around him. Trying to sit up, he found himself strapped down to a stretcher and unable to move. Slowly, he opened his eyes, blood rushing into them from the jagged gash between his eyes. "Rinoa," he choked out, his voice raspy and barely audible._

_Yet, someone had heard him. A paramedic to his side that he hadn't noticed bent over him, shining a small flashlight in Squall's eyes as he checked the pupils' dilation. "Everything's fine," the young woman, no older than himself or Rinoa, reassured as she placed a cloth over the gash to staunch the bleeding. "You're going to be okay."_

_"Rinoa," Squall tried again, his voice a little louder as he tried to fight against the restraints on the stretcher. A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he stared at it as best he could. Two paramedics were slowly rolling a sheet covered body across the snow-covered median when they hit a bump, causing an arm to fall out from underneath the sheet. But, it was the hand that caught Squall's attention... the hand that was wearing the engagement ring he had given to Rinoa months before._

_That was when he knew. Rinoa was dead._

The whole time Squall had been relating the events of that night to Yuffie, he kept his head lowered in his hands, feeling the tears build up behind his eyes... the tears he refused to let fall. He never even noticed when Yuffie left her seat and walked around behind him, hesitating on what she was about to do. Biting her lips and waiting for the consequences of her actions, she wrapped her arms around him from behind and laid her head against his hunched over back.

He didn't even respond to her actions, seemingly lost in his haunted mind, reliving that night over and over again. "Squall?" Yuffie whispered into his shirt, tightening her grip around him slightly. "It wasn't your fault."

"I should have listened to her. She didn't want to go out in the storm in the first place," he mumbled into his hands, more to himself than to the girl behind him. "She knew what was going to happen."

Taking a deep breath, Yuffie closed her eyes and prayed to whoever was listening that she was about to say the right things. "That's right, Squall. She _knew_ what was going to happen. But, she didn't stop you. It's not your fault, Squall. It was her time to go and she knew it," she told him quietly, but forcefully, trying desperately to get her point across.

"That doesn't make it not my fault, Yuffie," he insisted, just now noticing the arms around his waist and the warmth at his back, her comforting him the best she knew how. "It's still my fault she died. I _was_ the one driving. I should have been more careful."

"It was an accident, Squall. You can't go blaming yourself for something like that. And, believe me, I know how the blame game goes. You think... you think that just because you were there when someone died, that it was your fault. Even if you weren't the one holding the gun, you think that if maybe you had screamed or ran to your neighbors for help, then she would still be alive and everything would be different," Yuffie rushed out, tears streaming down her face unheeded as she continued on.

At the feel of warm tears soaking through his shirt, Squall turned around on his stool, his turn to comfort as he drew Yuffie into his arms. "Yuffie, you were only four years old. There was nothing you could do," he murmured, gently stroking her short hair as she sobbed into his shirt. "It wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't your fault, either, Squall," Yuffie whispered once more, her tears finally slowing.

"I know, Yuffie," he sighed softly, placing a small kiss on the top her head. "I know." At that quiet admission of not being at fault, Squall felt as though a weight he had been living under for five years was slowly being lifted. It was still there, but not quite as heavy as it had been moments before.

* * *

_Okay, so I'm not too happy with how the end of this chapter turned out. I was going to do things a little differently, but couldn't figure out how. So, we have this. Also, my brain has gone into meltdown and I'm not entirely sure when I can get back to writing this. I've just been under a lot of stress lately, and I might need to take a short hiatus. But, don't worry. The story is NOT dead. I WILL finish it. It just might take me a few weeks or so to get my brain back. And, really, I guess this can be the ending of Part 1 of this story. I just now realized that. But, I'll continue to add onto it later. I just need some time to get my brain back. _


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Blue and Green and In

_Author's Note: Let's see. After more than a MONTH of not updating this baby, I finally came up with something the other night when I was taking a shower. I just hope I can pull it off and get things going again. Yeah... I kinda wrote myself into a corner last chapter, but I didn't want to change a thing about it. So, it just took a lot of time on my part to think of a way to continue the story. Hopefully, but no promises, I can get back on a regular schedule for updating._

_Oooh... and depending on how long this chapter turns out to be, this might cross into being my longest story wordwise yet. I mean, I knew it would eventually, but I wasn't exactly sure when. I think, to cross that line, the chapter needs to be 5415 words.... I might actually do it!_

_Disclaimer: Y'know, I don't even own the GAME Kingdom Hearts. I've just been kinda borrowing it from my nephew for the past six months. So, what makes you think I would own ALL the characters? I only own Squall!_ _And, in case you're wondering, I do not own Sbarro's or Pepsi or any other major company/restaurant I might mention._

* * *

_Chapter Eighteen: Blue and Green and In Between_

As their half-eaten breakfast grew cold on the counter, Squall and Yuffie continued to hold onto one another, finding comfort in the other's embrace. Neither said a word, wrapping the silence around themselves like a security blanket while they each thought about what the other had said. But, with the interruption of light knocking on the door, their comfort soon grew to awkwardness.

"I... uh... I better get the door," Yuffie stammered as she backed out of Squall's arms, fighting the blush that was creeping up on her face as she looked down at the floor. With her eyes diverted, she never noticed that Squall was doing the same and avoiding her eyes as well. As she walked to door, she heard the clacking of plates behind her that let her know that Squall was clearing the counter off.

Looking over her shoulder, the sight of a quickly drying damp spot on his back met her eyes, reminding her of the few tears she had shed. She could only hope that her eyes, which were surely slightly red now, wouldn't betray her to whoever was currently at the door. As she approached the door, Yuffie was betting that the person still lightly knocking on the door was none other than Aerith. And she was correct in her assumption as the bright green eyes and sweet smile of the florist met her as soon as she opened the door.

"Yuffie! Come on! We gotta go _right now_!" Aerith nearly shouted as she pushed through the partially open apartment door and stepped into the living room. Her eyes had a crazed look about them and in her hands were a thick stack of ads from the morning's paper.

Yuffie eyed the florist wearily, indigo eyes darting back and forth between the ads and Aerith's face. "Um... go where?" she asked timidly, fearing the answer.

"The sales, Yuffie! The after-Thanksgiving Day sales!" the brunette exclaimed, picking a random sales ad from the handful she had and shoving the front page of it in front of Yuffie's face. "See? This sale ends at ten this morning. That only gives us an hour! And this one ends at eleven and this one at one and this one at four..."

Her mind still on the events of that morning, Yuffie was only partially paying attention to Aerith when she saw Squall pass from the kitchen and head down the hallway, where he then entered his room and shut the door firmly behind him. At that, Yuffie sighed loudly and focused once more on the woman in front of her while rubbing the back of her neck. "Won't the stores be kinda busy today?"

Aerith rolled her eyes, shook her head, and sighed before finding a particular ad in her hand and showing it to Yuffie. "Who _cares_ if they're busy? Look at the deals we'd be getting," she told her in a slightly exasperated tone as pointed out the ad that convinced _her _that today would be worth the crowds.

Eyes widening, Yuffie blinked a few times to make sure the prices were correct on the page she was staring at. "That... that's over fifty percent off those clothes..." she muttered, taking the ad from Aerith's hands and flipping through it herself. "And those shoes and... and..." She trailed off as she grabbed another ad and looked through it. "And _those_ are sixty percent off..."

While her younger friend was looking through the sales papers, Aerith noticed for the first time that morning that Yuffie's eyes were slightly red. "Yuffie, have you been crying?" she asked concernedly as she pushed down the ads in the girl's hands and took a better look at her eyes.

"What? Why would you think that?" Yuffie replied, feigning confusion at the florist's comment. She _really_ didn't want to explain why she had been crying in the first place to the woman and assumed it would be easier to lie her way out of the situation.

"Maybe because your eyes are all red and it looks like you've been crying," Aerith said in a matter of fact tone and raised a lone, chestnut eyebrow as she stared at Yuffie. "Now, are you going to tell me why?"

Thoughts running a mile a minute, Yuffie struggled to come up with a lie that at least _sounded_ halfway plausible. "Uh... y'see... Squall... he... uh... he spilt some pepper in the kitchen this morning and I had a sneezing fit," she faltered, her eyes darting around the room and avoiding the green gaze of Aerith that seemed to stare into her soul and find the lie.

"Alright. I'll buy that... for now," the florist conceded, the last part of her statement said beneath her breath where Yuffie was unable to hear it. "Anyways, we have to get going if we're going to make these sales before they end or sell out..."

"Yeah... okay. Just let me go put some shoes on and grab my jacket," Yuffie agreed, nodding her head as she started down the hall and left Aerith alone in the living room. Passing by the bathroom, she stopped and went in to wash her face, noticing that her eyes were, indeed, red from her earlier crying bout. She grabbed a wash cloth from the sink, quickly wetting it under the faucet before gently rubbing it across her eyes. It helped, but her eyes were still slightly red.

Sighing, she lay the cloth back on the edge of the sink and continued on to her room, finding her sneakers next to the bedroom door. She quickly slipped them on, glad that she had them already tied loosely so she could do so easily, and returned to the living room, where Aerith was still waiting for her. The florist was sitting on the arm of the couch and trying to coax Demi out from behind the cushions where she hid when the front door was opened.

"She's not gonna come out, y'know," Yuffie said as she passed by Aerith and headed straight towards the coat closet, pulling out the jacket Squall had given her for her birthday. In the few days it had spent in the closet, next to his nearly identical one, it had managed to pick up his scent and _that_ made Yuffie happy.

"I know she's not going to come out, but I can hope, can't I?" the florist replied as she gave up on the cat and followed Yuffie to the apartment door. "That cat doesn't like anyone besides you and Leon." She stopped for a moment, hand on the door frame and stared at Yuffie. "Where is Leon, anyways?"

Yuffie shrugged, struggling with the zipper of her jacket as she did so. "I dunno. I think he might be taking a shower." Glad to have a distraction from the florist's seemingly all-knowing eyes, she continued to pretend she was having trouble with the zipper as she answered the question.

Aerith noticed that her younger friend avoided her eyes as she answered her, making the woman very suspicious as to what exactly was going on around here. The redness that betrayed Yuffie's eyes earlier was proof that she had been crying, and, now, at the mention of Leon, the girl refused to meet her eyes. That was when Aerith also noticed the jacket Yuffie was wearing. "Isn't that Leon's jacket?"

"Hm?" Yuffie mumbled distractedly, finally zipping the jacket in question up all the way. "Oh! No. He got it for me for my birthday because he knew how much I loved his," she explained as she walked out the door, grabbing her small wallet she had left on the counter and shoving it into the back pockets of her blue jeans. She _still_ refused to carry a purse.

"You're going to be sitting crooked, you know," Aerith pointed out as she rolled her eyes and opened the apartment door. Just as they were stepping out the door, the sound of another door opening down the hall drew their attention.

Squall had partially opened his bedroom door and had stepped out to where only half of his body could be seen, his hair dripping water and a towel wrapped around his waist. "Where are you two going?" he inquired, focusing his eyes on Aerith and refusing to look at Yuffie.

Even more suspicious now that not only was Leon in a towel, but also obviously not looking at Yuffie, who was not looking at him either, Aerith narrowed her eyes slightly. "Leon, it's the day after Thanksgiving," she said in a slow, quiet voice as though she were speaking to a very small child.

"Aerith, are you kidnaping Yuffie?" Squall asked, raising his eyebrows slightly at the woman.

"Yes, I am. We're going shopping," she proclaimed proudly, grabbing Yuffie's arm and dragging her from the edge of the door she had been leaning against. The younger girl merely crinkled her nose and let a weak smile come over her face.

"Oh God..." Squall muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing them as he thought about all the sales that would be going on today and how _much_ stuff they would be coming back with later in the day. By the time he had opened his eyes once more, the two girls were gone.

- - - - - - - - - -

After spending a good twenty minutes searching for an empty table in the food court of the mall, Yuffie _finally_ spotted one and nearly sprinted across the tiled floor to it, leaving a slightly bewildered Aerith behind her. But, when she saw what it was exactly Yuffie was running towards, she began hurrying towards it as well, nearly dragging the bags from various stores behind her as she did so. They had already made one trip out to her SUV to unload their purchases and were planning on making another as soon as they ate lunch.

Upon reaching the table, Yuffie let out a breath as she dropped her bags onto the floor beside her chair; half of the bags she was carrying belonged to Aerith. The florist had turned out to be an even more impulsive shopper when there were sales going on than when Yuffie had originally gone shopping with her about a month ago. She was a combat shopper. It was almost scary the way the woman would just shove item after item into the teenager's arms, charge through the crowds, and just slap a credit card down onto the counter while the harried cashier rang up her purchases.

"Do you want to get the food or do you want me to get the food?" Yuffie asked when Aerith finally joined her at the table. But, realizing that her friend was exhausted whereas she, herself, had an almost boundless supply of energy, Yuffie decided that she would get their lunch. "Never mind. I'll get it. Just tell me what you want."

"Just get me a slice of whatever's freshest at Sbarro's and a Pepsi," she muttered as she dropped down into the chair and let her bags fall around her feet. Aerith had to admit that even though she loved shopping, it was somewhat tiring on days like today, when most of the stores were packed full of people and one had to weave their way through the crowds to even find anything. Tiredly, she lowered her head to the table and just let it rest there while she waited for Yuffie to return with their food.

She must have dozed off slightly because the next thing Aerith knew, Yuffie had returned and was waving a piece of pepperoni pizza beneath her nose in an attempt to wake her up. "I knew that would wake you up," Yuffie giggled, putting the pizza back down on the plate and sliding Aerith's tray towards her.

"I wasn't sleeping. I was just resting my eyes," Aerith replied in mock indignation, going so far as to try and put an offended look on her face before she burst out in laughter herself. "Okay, so I was just a _little_ tired."

"In a few more minutes, you would have been snoring and drooling all over the table," Yuffie insisted, taking a huge bite of her pizza before she realized how hot it actually was. To cool her burnt mouth, she quickly grabbed her Dr. Pepper and pulled a piece of ice out of the cup to suck on for a few minutes.

Trying not to laugh at the younger girl's antics, Aerith demurely used the plastic knife and fork and cut off a small bite of her pizza. "Ladies neither snore nor drool," she said loftily as she raised her fork to her mouth.

"Good thing you're not a lady then," Yuffie said around the quickly melting ice cube in her mouth, making her words slightly slurred and garbled. But, apparently Aerith got the message for she glared at Yuffie a moment, fighting the smile that was upturning the corners of her mouth, before finally dropping her knife and fork and simply picked up the whole slice of pizza.

For a moment, neither girl said anything, just continued to eat their pizza and let the noises of the crowd around them and the barely heard Christmas music coming from the speakers above fill the silence. "So," Yuffie began, having the urge to help fill the silence, "why didn't you take Cloud shopping instead of me?"

Aerith, who had been taking a drink of her soda, unintentionally snorted at Yuffie's question and began coughing and sputtering as she choked on her drink. "Cloud?!" she exclaimed when she finally found herself able to talk although her eyes were still watering a bit from her coughing fit. "Are you insane? He'd rather have a root canal than go shopping with me. Especially on the day after Thanksgiving."

"Then what's he gonna do all day while we're gone?" Yuffie asked, letting her curiosity get the better of her. Even though Squall was also left alone, she knew him well enough to know that he would most likely spend the time either reading, sleeping, or finding something related to his restaurant to do for the day.

"He's probably either still sleeping or playing on his playstation." At this, Aerith rolled her eyes and sighed loudly in obvious frustration with her husband. "This time, the game of his current obsession involves a sorceress and some guy with a sword that is also gun. I swear, that man is like a child sometimes."

Stifling her laughter, Yuffie bit the inside of her cheek, but her shoulders trembling with suppressed laughter gave her away and she finally burst out giggling. "Maybe you should've married Squall instead. I couldn't get him to come near the playstation while I was borrowing it," she chuckled, her laughter finally dying down some as she noticed the stares both she and Aerith were receiving from the other diners.

At Yuffie's comment, Aerith visibly shuddered and a disgusted look came over her face. "Marry Leon? He's like a brother to me. Would you _really_ want to marry someone you considered to be your brother?" she insisted, shuddering once more at the thought.

"But he's such a sexy bro–," Yuffie began, then quickly covered her mouth as she realized what she was about to say and praying that Aerith hadn't heard her. But, apparently the fates were against her because the florist quickly pounced on that accidental comment.

"Doth my ears deceive me or did Yuffie just say that Leon was sexy?" Aerith teased, bright green eyes shining with amusement as her friend began to squirm in her seat and blush.

"Well, he _is_, isn't he?" Yuffie retaliated, silently cursing herself for that fatal slip of the tongue. She really wasn't ready for anyone to know about how she felt for Squall, especially when the events of this morning left her so confused.

Aerith quirked an eyebrow and continued to stare at Yuffie, watching the many shades of red cover her face. "Yes, I can see where he would be considered sexy. But that's beside the point. You tried to hide the fact that you think so, which only leads me to one thing. Yuffie, do you _like_ Leon?" she prodded, her expression telling Yuffie that she would insist upon an answer.

Not wanting to tell how she felt about Squall, Yuffie did the one thing she could at the moment; she changed the subject. "Oh my gawd! Did you see the woman that just walked past?! I swear, she was wearing a Kleenex!" she exclaimed, pointing across the food court with one hand.

"Don't change the subject, Yuffie," the florist said in a calm, almost sing-song voice. "Now, do you _like_ Leon? And don't make me take your pizza away to get an answer!"

In response to _that_ threat, however, Yuffie simply shoved the rest of her pizza, about half a slice, into her mouth and smiled. "Ha!" she mumbled around the partially masticated food in her mouth and tried not to choke as she did so.

"Well, I guess I'll have to resort to tickling then," Aerith smirked, already rising from her seat and walking around the table to where Yuffie sat.

Quickly swallowing her food, Yuffie struggled to get out of the chair and realized her foot was caught in the rungs beneath it. She silently cursed herself, for the second time that day, for having wrapped her foot around it in the first place. But, there was no time for that because the florist was advancing on her. "Okay, okay... I give up. _Yes_, I like Squall. There! You happy?"

"Very," Aerith said simply, returning to her seat while Yuffie climbed back into her chair after dusting the seat of her pants off. "He's been a lot happier lately, too, you know." A wicked smile came over her face and she leaned closer to Yuffie over the table. "Is there something going on between you two that I should know about? Or something you want to tell me?"

Yuffie laughed nervously, and looked down at her hands where she was picking at the cuticle of one finger. "Um... not really... at least, I don't think so... I don't really know, actually... but, if there _were_, would you be upset or anything?" she inquired quietly, still not looking at Aerith's eyes.

"Of course not! Why on earth would I be upset?" Aerith asked in genuine confusion.

"Because he's so much older than I am..." she trailed off, the playful atmosphere from just moments earlier having disappeared.

"Yeah, and?" the florist prodded, waiting for her to continue and maybe give a more logical reason, but then realized that she wasn't _going_ to continue. "That's it? Yuffie, you're eighteen. Even if I _did _disapprove, which I don't, it wouldn't matter because you're a legal adult. And, like I said, Leon's been happier lately and the happiness of both my 'brother' and you mean a lot to me." At Yuffie's shocked expression, she continued. "What? Did you think I was going to be a super-bitch and try to keep you two apart?"

Yuffie grinned sheepishly. "Um... well... yeah." Aerith merely sighed and shook her head, mumbling her friend's name a few times. "Y'know, I think I should get some ice cream for putting up with this interrogation," Yuffie muttered, picking up her now empty tray and carrying it to the trash can.

- - - - - - - - - -

It was nearly dark by the time Aerith finally claimed that their shopping quest was over and allowed her and Yuffie to return home. The two girls practically dragged themselves into the elevator, carrying as many bags as they could with them. Fortunately, Yuffie had purchased few enough items to take them all in one trip. On the other hand, Aerith would have to return to her car at least once more, possibly two more times before all of her purchases were brought in.

In the elevator, a violent shiver racked Yuffie's frame, making her snuggle into her jacket deeper to help stop it. While the morning had been just cold enough to need a jacket, the afternoon had turned much colder as an unexpected cold front came sweeping through the area and chilled everything down considerably. And, apparently, the apartment manager hadn't turned the heat up in the hallways and elevators yet.

Silently, the two girls trudged down the hallway, bidding their goodbyes as each unlocked their door and entered their apartments. Upon entering hers and Squall's, Yuffie groaned as the apartment was cold and it was dark, meaning that Squall was not there. And that was a very bad thing since she had no idea how to work the thermostat.

Walking into the living room, she slowly let bags drop out of her hands, leaving a trail behind her as she made her way to the couch and threw herself down upon it. She had never dreamed shopping with Aerith could be so tiring. But, she had to admit, she had fun even if Aerith _did _force her to say how she felt about Squall. And, she did get the ice cream she had asked for.

Of course, now that it had gotten so cold outside and inside the apartment, she decided it might have been better to have gotten hot chocolate or something else warm. She shivered again, clutching her jacket tighter around her body when she heard the sound of clothes tumbling in the dryer. She smiled at that thought and jumped off the couch, nearly running into the laundry room to see how dry exactly the clothes were. She was in luck; the dryer was nearly finished with this cycle, meaning that the clothes were dry and still nice and warm.

Without a second thought, Yuffie pulled open the dryer door and pulled the clothes out, finding one of Squall's hooded sweatshirts he wore when he went running some mornings. Deciding that it was warmer than the jacket she currently had on, she took off her jacket and tossed it across the washing machine before pulling his sweatshirt down over her head.

The surge of warmth was immediate and Yuffie quickly grabbed the rest of the clothes in her arms and carried them with her to the couch, where she buried herself with them and pulled the hood of the sweatshirt over her head. Once inside her self-made warm cocoon, she snuggled down into them and closed her eyes.

In the back of her mind, a nagging thought told her it would have been better if she had simply placed a blanket into the dryer for a few minutes rather than use the _clean_ laundry as a blanket. But, she pushed that nagging voice away. It sounded amazingly like the voice Squall used when getting onto her about sitting on his _clean_ kitchen counters. Besides, she would have had to _wait_ for a blanket to get warm, whereas these clothes were _already_ warm. With the nagging voice finally silenced, she slowly drifted off to sleep, not caring that it was barely even six o'clock and that if she slept now, she wouldn't be able to sleep that night. Right now, sleep seemed like the best thing in the world to her.

It was about an hour later when Squall stepped through the apartment door, nearly tripping over the bags Yuffie had left strewn about the room. The lights were still off in the apartment since she had simply used the little remaining light coming from the window and her knowledge of the apartment's layout to get around.

He flipped the switch for the overhead living room light and found a pile of laundry laying on his couch with two cats curled up in it. That was when he noticed that the pile of laundry was also breathing and a face could be barely seen beneath the hood of his sweatshirt. "God... she's so cute..." he inadvertently whispered, glad that she was asleep and didn't hear him say it.

Shrugging off his coat, he hung it up in the closet and realized that the apartment was a little chilly, probably the reason for her curling up with what he assumed had been warm clothes fresh from the dryer. He headed towards the thermostat, which was located in the hallway, Squall turned it up a few degrees then returned to the living room, stopping in front of Yuffie and staring down at her for a few moments.

It was both confusing and awkward for him to have feelings for this girl, who little over a month ago, had been a pickpocket on the streets. If it hadn't been for him, she would still _be_ on the streets and, quite possibly, dead right now considering how sick she had been when he brought her here. And somehow, along the way, he had fallen in love with her despite the fact that they were nearly complete opposites.

Just this morning, he had spilled out the whole sordid story of the accident that had claimed Rinoa's life. And, yes, he had been angry when her name had been brought up, for it reminded him of what he considered to be his failure. He was the one driving when Rinoa died and, perhaps, if he had driven more carefully, she would be with him today.

But, at the same time, if Rinoa hadn't have died that day, Yuffie would not be here in his apartment today. If Rinoa had lived, then he would have married her and, most likely, be living on the other side of town. It had been because of Rinoa's death that he had moved here in the first place, in an attempt to escape from painful memories. And, it was living on _this_ side of town that he had found Yuffie (or she found him, he conceded as he remembered her stealing his wallet that night).

He had been thinking about this all day, the thoughts confusing him because it was almost like saying that it was good that Rinoa had died and he didn't think that at all. It was more like somehow, something good had been made out of her death. It was her death that led him to Yuffie and, most likely, saved her life, both physically and emotionally, even if it _was_ against her will in the beginning. He still remembered how angry she had become with him when he refused to let her leave and her declaration that she would leave as soon as she was eighteen.

Shaking his head, Squall rubbed his temples, having brought a slight headache on with his train of thoughts. He reached out with his other hand and gently pushed the hood away from Yuffie's face, causing her to crinkle her nose and shift slightly. He thought she would remain asleep, however, a moment later her eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room in slight confusion until she got her bearings. "I was just wondering if you were actually in there?" he asked, gesturing to the pile of clothes on her lap.

"Uh... yeah... it was kinda cold when I got back here, so... yeah..." Yuffie trailed off, assuming that he could figure out from there what happened. There was a long silence, both of them still feeling awkward because of the events of this morning. This was the first time they had spoken to each other since then and Yuffie was still afraid that he was mad at her for bringing up Rinoa. "I'll re-wash all these clothes since I kinda got them dirty again," she mumbled, rising from the couch and picking up the laundry to carry to the wash room.

But, before she could go anywhere, Squall's voice interrupted her. "You told me once that after you turned eighteen you were going to leave," he said softly, watching as he saw her stop suddenly and nearly drop the clothes she was carrying.

Yuffie gulped. She had been halfway afraid of this ever since she had decided that she like living here, afraid that Squall would one day tell her she had to leave. Of course, she was almost positive that Aerith would let her move into her and Cloud's apartment, but she didn't want to make the move; she wanted to stay here. "I remember," she whispered hoarsely, her back still turned to Squall. She was glad he couldn't see her face for in the back of her eyes, tears had silently formed. She knew she had made him angry with her that morning, but she never dreamed he was angry enough to make her move out. Begging seemed to be her only option. "I don't wanna go."

"Please don't go," Squall pleaded at the same time as Yuffie's last statement, causing her to turn around and stare at him.

There was another long pause, this time interrupted by Yuffie as she tried to process the meaning behind what Squall had just said. After all, he _had _been mad at her this morning and he _had _every right and reason to throw her out. Yet, he still wanted her to stay. "So, I guess you love me again?" she asked in a slightly teasing manner in an attempt to lighten the somber mood that had settled in the apartment.

"Again implies I stopped," he replied, much more seriously than her question had warranted. Of course, the night before he had simply told her that he _thought_ he was in love with her, but was that really true? Wasn't _thinking _you were in love with someone the same thing as _being_ in love with someone? Besides, he had decided when he took her for dinner and she guilted him into _not_ eating the lamb that he was in love with her.

At that, Yuffie _did _drop the clothes in her arms and they landed in a scattered mess on the carpeted floor. She really didn't expect _that_ answer out of all the possible answers he could have given her and she suddenly felt like the metaphorical deer in the headlights. How was she supposed to answer that when she, herself, wasn't even sure what exactly love _was_? But the silence that, once again, fell over the apartment was driving her mad and she _had _to say something. "So you really weren't as mad at me as you seemed?" she questioned tentatively.

"I wasn't mad at you to begin with. I was mad at myself," Squall explained as he knelt down and began to pick up the clothes. Yuffie soon followed suit and knelt down with him. "Besides, I can't stay mad at you anyhow." _Especially when you look at me with those eyes..._ he silently finished in his head as they carried the clothes to the laundry room and deposited them into the washer.

"Even when I do this?" Yuffie asked deviously, her teasing self having come back as she cracked her knuckles purposively loud. She had learned from experience that the practice drove Squall insane and she expected him to demand that she stop like he had done countless times before.

Squall grabbed her hands and twisted them behind her back, resulting in her being pulled against his body. "No, because I know how to make you stop," he whispered, leaning his head down so his breath was hot on her ear. He tightened his grip slightly on her hands when she struggled to get free, forcing him to push her even closer to him if that was possible.

"That's cheating, you know," Yuffie muttered, her voice slightly muffled by his chest. Not that she was complaining about being this close to him; it was nice, _very _nice being pushed up against him. But, she would have liked to retain the usage of her hands so that she could _at least_ wrap her arms around him and hug him.

"But I got you to stop cracking your knuckles. Therefore, it's not cheating," he murmured, his voice low and almost seductive, and his breath still dangerously close to her ear. Squall felt Yuffie tremble slightly, assuming she was nervous (whether it was the good kind of nervous or the bad kind of nervous, he didn't know) from being in this position, and released her hands. But, she didn't back away. Instead, she placed her arms around his chest and held onto him for a moment in a hug and _then _backed away from him.

Yuffie rolled her eyes in what was supposed to appear as exasperation, but the smile that crept onto her face betrayed her mock annoyance. "Fine, fine. Whatever. You win," she told him, turning around and walking out of the laundry room and back into the living room, where she noticed all her bags still lying around on the floor. She started picking them up, knowing that Squall liked to keep his apartment neat for the most part and would probably say something about them soon anyways.

"Did you have fun shopping today?" Squall asked innocently as he stepped back into the living room soon after her and watched as she gathered purchases together into a small pile in the corner of the room.

"It was a near death experience," she admitted, shuddering involuntarily as she remembered the crowds and crowds of people and the way Aerith had _insisted_ they go to every store that was having a sale.

Letting out a soft chuckle, Squall nodded before sitting down on the couch and turning on the television. "Shopping with Aerith tends to be like that," he said dryly, flipping through the channels on the TV to find something at least halfway decent to watch. He finally settled on an old black and white movie, something called _Bringing Up Baby,_ that was just starting on one of the classics channels.

Yuffie finished pushing all her purchases into the corner, deciding that she would sort them and wash what needed to be washed the next day when she saw what Squall had put the TV on. "Not black and white," she groaned, attempting to grab the remote from him and change channels.

"Yes, black and white," he insisted, putting the remote between him and couch arm so she couldn't reach it. "You've never even seen the movie. Just watch it and you might like it."

Begrudgingly, Yuffie slipped her shoes off and curled up into his side on the couch like she did whenever they had watched scary movies. Of course, tonight, she didn't have the luxury of using _that _as an excuse; he would just have to put up with her. But, she assumed he didn't mind when she felt his arm come down around her back and pull her slightly closer. "This had better be a good movie or I'm going to sleep," she warned, her eyes already glued to the screen as she watched some scientist messing around with a dinosaur skeleton.

"That's okay," Squall whispered, bending his head down to lightly kiss the top of her head as he brought his other hand, the one not on her back, across his abdomen to rest on her waist. It wasn't long after this that the whole day of shopping caught up with Yuffie, and she soon fell asleep, despite the fact that she had been thoroughly enjoying the movie. And, not wanting to wake her, Squall waited until the end of the movie to very gently carry her to her room, placing her upon the mattress and then, careful so as not to disturb her, he pulled the blankets out from beneath her to cover her. Planting a small kiss on her forehead, Squall left her alone in her room, making sure to leave her door slightly open so her phobias wouldn't flare up should she awaken in the middle of the night.

Reluctantly, Squall entered his own bedroom, that suddenly seemed extremely lonely after having her sleep with him the night before. But he couldn't just put her in there tonight without knowing if she even _wanted _to sleep with him; it was something he would leave completely to her decision. It was nice just sharing a bed with someone, he surmised, just sharing someone's warmth without anything sexual actually occurring between them. Of course... he shook his head, not wanting his thoughts to go _there_ right now.

After preparing for bed and stripping down to his boxers, Squall climbed into the bed, shivering slightly from the chill of the cold sheets. Yes, he decided tonight would be a very cold night without Yuffie's warmth next to him.

* * *

_Author's Note: Long chapter. My word processor says it's 6330 words, but the doc manager always takes off a few hundred. So, this story may now be officially my longest or it might not. I won't know until I post this._

_But, anyways, I'm glad I actually got back into writing this. I've been working on this chapter for three days, writing the vast majority of it (5000 words) today. And, if you haven't noticed, I've gone kinda crazy with italics throughout the story. :::grins:::_

_And I'm not sure if this chapter is completely up to par or not. It's hard getting back into the groove of writing these characters as how I've portrayed them throughout the story. Especially after finally playing Final Fantasy VIII all the way through and watching the 'real' Squall. Yeah... he's different than what I've written so far, at least in my opinion, but I can't do just change his character halfway through the story._

_Ahhh... I'm rambling. I'll just go post this thing now since everyone's been patient with me throughout my mental constipation. _


	19. Chapter Nineteen: The Sky is Falling

_Author's Note: I did it again. I let a month go by without updating. Or, NEARLY a month. Anyways, I had a lot of crap to do that I can blame it on (graduation, finals, sucky family Christmas parties, etc etc) plus my dad's been home and he likes to take the computer to play Freecell on it. :::sigh:::_

_Anyways, I'm updating now._

_Disclaimer: Blah blah blah... how many times must I write this? I do not own the characters portrayed within. However, I have a life-size, fully operational, complete with leather jacket and Gunblade Squall plushie in my closet. And that makes me happy._

* * *

_Chapter Nineteen: The Sky is Falling_

Monday afternoon found Yuffie smiling in the passenger seat of Squall's _Jaguar_ as he drove them to _The Rustic Oven_, the restaurant having been closed since Thanksgiving day to give everyone a much needed break to spend the holidays with their families. Of course, Squall and Yuffie, having no family, spent it with each other, adjusting to the no longer strictly platonic relationship that had sprung up between them. For the most part, she had been letting Squall initiate any kisses shared between them, unsure of herself and scared she might do something wrong. But, then again, she _had _surprised both of them a few times when she couldn't resist the urge any longer and _he_ wasn't making any moves towards her.

The car rolling to a stop at a yellow light pulled Yuffie out of her thoughts and she started to roll her eyes at Squall's overly cautious driving habits when she remembered what he had shared with her about Rinoa's death Friday morning. She realized suddenly that the fact that he had been the one driving when she died was the reason he now drove at a snail's pace. Yuffie was about to open her mouth to say something, but the words died on her lips when Squall turned to her, eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Yuffie... there can't be any PDA at the restaurant," he warned, staring intently into her indigo eyes for a moment to make sure she understood him. There was a strict policy against _any_ public displays of affection between employees that he, himself, had instituted when he had first inherited the restaurant. And, despite the fact that he owned the restaurant and was the one who made the rules, he was not planning to break or bend them for any reason.

Beneath his stare, Yuffie put on the sweetest, most innocent look she could muster, widening her eyes and pouting slightly. "Not even a little bit?" she teased, wondering at his warning. Surely it wouldn't be _that_ hard to go six or seven or however many hours they spent at the restaurant that day without kissing each other. Was he expecting her to turn into a raging nymphomaniac during the day and just attack him?

Whereas Yuffie was jesting, Squall was completely serious, no look of humor on his face. "No," he said firmly, still staring at her.

"Even waaaay back in the kitchen when everyone is on break and we're all alone?" she continued, having to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at his overly solemn demeanor.

"None," Squall intoned, staying focused on her with wary eyes, as though she might leap from her seat and attack him at any given moment.

"Squall–," Yuffie began, only to be interrupted.

"I said no PDA!"

A giggle escaped Yuffie's throat at his insistence and she rubbed her forehead with one hand, closing her eyes and smiling. "That's fine. But, Squall... the light's not going to get much greener and I think the people behind us are getting angry," she whispered in a conspiratorial manner while gesturing towards the now green light hanging in the intersection.

Squall had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at his outburst, turning to face forward and proceeding through the intersection. "I knew that," he muttered darkly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"Sure ya did," Yuffie drawled, nodding her head slowly while winking and grinning broadly. The only response she got from him was a glare that she refused to take seriously, knowing that it was all for show.

The rest of the trip to the restaurant was rather quiet, save for the radio and Yuffie's voice as she belted out songs at the top of her lungs, regardless of the fact that there were _some_ notes she could not hit. Of course, the few winces on Squall's face as she hit a bad note were enough to make her _continue_ to sing badly until he couldn't take it any longer and turned the radio off.

But, that didn't affect her much since they were pulling into the rather empty parking lot of _The Rustic Oven_ by then and he was already parking the car. No sooner had he put the car into park than Yuffie reached over and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, roughly pulling him into a kiss. Considering that the girl had been rather shy about initiating any kisses over the weekend, it was needless to say that surprise was clearly written across Squall's face.

"What was that for?" Squall asked when Yuffie finally released him.

"It's gotta last all day!" she told him in exasperation as she leaned up to kiss him once more, this time _without_ the surprised look on his face.

Unbeknownst to Squall and Yuffie, they were being watched from across the parking lot by two pairs of eyes, said eyes belonging to Sora and Riku as they sat inside the jeep of Riku's girlfriend, Zephyr. But, upon seeing the sight of their boss and coworker making out in a car across the parking lot, both of their eyes went wide and Sora very nearly dropped the milkshake he was drinking on the backseat.

Zephyr glared at him through the rearview mirror, gray eyes darkening and boring holes into his skull. "Don't you _dare _spill that on my seats!" she growled, continuing to glower at the slightly younger boy until he nodded his head in abject terror.

"Yes, ma'am," the brunet said submissively, cowering slightly in the backseat of the jeep, too scared to make the move to get out of the car without awaiting her permission. He really didn't understand why Riku put up with her. But, then again, Zephyr treated Riku _much_ differently than she treated Sora; she only bit Riku _once_ whereas anyone else who tried to hold her down would receive multiple bites. Looking around the back of the jeep, Sora noticed a pair of old, mucked up, and rather smelly work boots that would explain the odor he had been smelling since he entered the jeep. "Geez, Zephyr, whacha been doing with these boots? Walking around in horse shit all day?"

Another glare from the driver and directed towards him was seen through the rearview mirror while Riku turned around to stare at the brunet in disbelief. "Yes, Sora, I _have _been walking around in horse shit all day. I work at a stable, you mindless little lackwit," Zephyr snarled before softening her expression and turning to Riku. "What was so exciting?"

"That's our boss," Riku said as he raised an arm to point at the black car across the parking lot.

"And?" Zephyr prodded when it became apparent Riku wasn't going to continue.

"That's our boss... and he just... doesn't... _do_ stuff like _that_," Sora stammered as he picked up where Riku left off, still staring out the window to where Yuffie and Squall were climbing out of the car. "And what's a lackwit anyways?" The look of confusion on his face was priceless, causing Riku to groan and run his hand down his face.

Zephyr fixed her eyes on the brunet once more, grinning maliciously. "Something you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora demanded indignantly, trying to glare her down through the rearview mirror.

Before Zephyr could answer him, Riku slapped his hand over her mouth and turned back to face Sora. "Sora, just shut up and get out of the car. Believe me, you're better off not knowing what Zephyr was about to say," the silver haired teenager warned, slowly taking his hand off of his girlfriend's mouth.

Zephyr waited until the brunet was out of the car before saying anything else. "You realize every time you don't let me say something I get backup, right?" she asked Riku, glaring at him in aggravation.

"Doesn't scare me," he told her as he climbed out of the jeep.

"Well it should!" Zephyr shouted as she drove off, leaving the two boys alone in the parking lot save for the two figures near Squall's car.

"Riku... I think the sky must be falling," Sora muttered as he watched Yuffie reach up with one hand and turn Squall's face to give him a quick kiss before they reached the back entrance of the restaurant.

"I don't see any flying pigs though," Riku grumbled sarcastically as he grabbed Sora's arm and tried to drag him out of the daze he had apparently fallen into as he watched Squall and Yuffie. "But, if we're late, Mr. Leon is not going to be happy. So, come on." He gave another tug at the younger boy's arm and jerked him across the parking lot.

"I dunno... considering what we just saw, he might be in a _really_ good mood," Sora mumbled, quickly ducking his head as he saw his friend's hand coming towards him to smack him on the backside of the head. "Well, he _might!_"

Rolling his eyes, Riku left the boy in the parking lot and continued on his way to the door. "Why don't you find out, Sora?" he called over his shoulder as he walked through the employee entrance and let the door shut in Sora's face.

"I think I will," the younger teenager said to himself as he opened the door and stepped through, deciding that _today_ might be a good day to ask for a promotion from his janitorial position.

Inside the restaurant, they found Yuffie and Kairi already donning their uniforms and Squall busy going over things in the kitchen. Passing by the two girls, Riku directed a wink towards Yuffie before going to put on his own uniform. A look of confusion came over both girls' faces as they followed him with their eyes before looking to one another.

"Any idea what just happened?" Yufife asked Kairi as she tied her apron around her waist.

"Nope and I'm not sure I _want _to know," the red head replied as she quickly rolled up her sleeves in preparation for the evening rush. The lunch hour rush had already passed them by and they would have just an hour or two of slow business before people started to literally _pour_ through the doors. "And since when did you start working the evenings?"

"Um... since today. Squall said I was getting better at the waitress thing and that he needed more help in the evenings than he did at lunch. So, here I am," Yuffie said in a rush, not realizing that she had slipped and called Squall _Squall_ at a place where she was _supposed _to call him _Mr. Leon_ like everyone else did.

Kairi simply shrugged, having become used to Yuffie's rambling over the past month and change. "Well, we better get out there. I think I hear people coming in and we don't want–," Kairi began, but broke off when she noticed that Yuffie was no longer paying attention to her. Instead, her eyes were focused on something in the kitchen and, upon following the path her eyes made, she found that they were focused on _someone_ rather than _something_. Or, to be even _more_ specific, focused on the backside of their boss as he leaned against a counter top to look over something. "Yuffie? Yuffie? Yuffie! There's purple monkeys flying out of Sora's butt!" the red head called, trying to get her friend's attention.

"Really? That's nice," Yuffie murmured as her attention was still diverted elsewhere. That is, until what Kairi said registered itself in her brain. "Wait a minute! Purple monkeys?"

"It's nice to know you were paying attention, Yuffie," the younger girl muttered, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "Now, if you'll kindly shut your mouth before you start drooling, we can go out and actually wait on the customers before they get _too_ upset."

Yuffie shut her mouth with a snap, sighing loudly and giving Squall's backside one more glance before she entered the dining room. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she grumbled as she followed Kairi. "And I was _so_ not drooling back there, Kai."

"Sure you weren't," Kairi said in a tone that told Yuffie that she believed otherwise. "You gonna tell me about it later?" With raised eyebrows, she watched the raven-haired girl squirm beneath her gaze.

"Tell what?" Yuffie finally inquired, feigning innocence.

"What's going on," the younger girl stated matter of factly.

"Um... nothing's going on." Crossing her fingers behind her back, Yuffie prayed that Kairi would believe her. She was almost _positive_ Squall would not want the whole restaurant knowing what was going on between them... at least not yet, since she knew the truth _would_ come out sooner or later.

Before Kairi could reply, Squall came out of the kitchen, leaving both girls with a slightly guilty look on their faces. "Kairi, table five is waiting for you to take their orders and, Yuffie, table one is waiting for you," he told them, pointing to the tables in the sparsely occupied room. "You can fraternize later." Although his words were spoken in a stern tone, there was a hint of a smile on his face as he watched them hurry off to work.

Feeling a presence behind him, Squall turned to find Sora staring up at him with a hopeful expression on his face and a mop and bucket in his hands. "So... Mr. Leon, you're in a good mood today, right?" the teenager asked cautiously as he carefully set the bucket down so as not to spill any water, preparing to make his request for a promotion.

"What makes you think I would be in a good mood today, Sora?" Squall questioned, raising his eyebrows and staring down at the boy with icy blue eyes. He didn't like the look Sora had on his face and he could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

"Well, I mean since you were obviously getting some lip action in the parking lot today–," Sora began, but stopped abruptly when he noticed the glare on his boss's face that spoke volumes, mainly dealing with how many ways to fire a person.

"Do you _want_ to be demoted again?" Squall growled in a low voice.

"But I'm already scrubbing toilets! What's lower than that?"

"Do you want to find out?"

Sora quickly shook his head, then scurried off with the mop and bucket in his hands before Squall could say anything else. Unfortunately, he bumped into Kairi on his way to the ladies restroom and caused her to spill the tray of drinks she was carrying all over the floor along with his mop water. The loud crash drew the attention of the few diners there and an exasperated groan from their boss as well. The look on Squall's face as he returned to the kitchen said it all: get the mess cleaned up and get it cleaned up _now_.

"Sora, you're going to get demoted again," Kairi warned as she hurriedly gathered up pieces of broken glass and piled them onto her tray. "I don't think you can afford another demotion."

"Like I told Mr. Leon, what's below toilet scrubber? Huh?" Sora demanded indignantly as he started mopping up the water from the floor.

Kairi dropped the glass bottom she was holding on the floor and just stared at Sora for a moment, blinking slowly a few times. "Sora, what did you do to make him threaten to demote you _again_?" she asked incredulously as she kneeled there on the floor.

Sheepishly, Sora scratched the back of his neck and smiled half-heartedly. "I kinda thinking of asking him for a promotion since I _thought_ he was gonna be in a good mood today. I mean, after what me and Riku saw in the parking lot, _anyone_ would think he'd be in a good mood. Well, Riku didn't, but that's because–.

Groaning, Kairi put her hand on Sora's arm, making him stop rambling. She could only deal with so many people rambling before it gave her a headache and Yuffie's rambling had filled that quota. "Sora, just shut up and tell me what you and Riku saw in the parking lot."

"Yuffie was hanging all over Mr. Leon and they were making out in his car," the brunet told her nonchalantly as he started mopping up the mess again. He figured that he had better have this mess cleaned up before Squall came back out here or he _would_ find out what was below toilet scrubbing.

Once again, Kairi stared at him in disbelief, blinking a few times. "Yuffie and Mr. Leon?" Sora nodded. "Well... that explains it," she muttered as she remembered what she caught Yuffie doing only moments before.

"Explains what?" Sora asked in obvious confusion, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Realizing that her customers were still waiting for the drinks she would have to go and get _again_, Kairi wrinkled her nose slightly in disgust. "I'll tell you later. But, right now, I gotta get my butt back out there before they decide to _not_ leave me a tip," she explained in a rushed manner as she stood up, needlessly brushing off the seat of her uniform.

"I'm always the last to know, aren't I?" Sora questioned aloud to himself, gaining a few scared stares from the table nearest him. He put his hands up appealingly and gave them an innocent gaze. "Just because I talk to myself, doesn't make me crazy. Now, if I _answered_ myself, then I would be crazy."

Though they didn't appear convinced, the customers went back to their meal, sparing him a wary glance occasionally as long as he was still there.

It was a few minutes after that when Kairi caught Yuffie alone, grabbing her arm and dragging her to an empty corner of the kitchen. "So," she began, grinning evilly at her coworker. "I heard it through the grapevine that you and Mr. Leon are an item now. Care to tell me about it?"

"What? Where did you hear that?" Yuffie asked, her eyes wide with what she hoped to look like confusion but was really shock that the younger girl had already discovered the truth in less than half an hour.

"From Sora, who saw you in the parking lot with Mr. Leon," Kairi said in a sing-song voice, grinning from ear to ear with her arms crossed behind her back. "Are you going to tell me how long this has been going on or am I going to have to drag it out of you?"

Yuffie picked up the wet dishrag sitting on the end of the counter and brandished it like a weapon. "Don't you _dare_ tell anyone else, Kairi MacEnroe!" she hissed as she glanced around to make sure Squall wasn't in the kitchen right then. He wasn't and she assumed he was in the office, doing the paperwork.

Kairi simply raised her eyebrows, waiting for Yuffie to continue. "Well?" she prodded, impatiently rocking on the balls of her feet.

"Since Thanksgiving. Or, really, Wednesday night," Yuffie admitted quietly, dropping the hand with the dishrag to her side. The wet cloth hit her leg with a slap and only _then _did she remember it was wet as the dampness seeped through her pants leg.

The red head was about to say more when Riku came through the kitchen door, eyes falling on Kairi immediately. "Kairi, your table is looking for you. Something about a speck of dust in their drinks," he told her, rolling his eyes as he walked over towards them.

Crossing her eyes slightly in aggravation and muttering something indistinguishable under her breath, Kairi took a deep breath and let it out slowly before plastering a cheerful smile on her face. "When I get back, Yuffie, I want details," she commanded as she stepped out into the dining room once more.

"So, Yuffie," Riku began, smirk coming across his face, "I saw you and the boss getting–."

He didn't say anymore as Yuffie's hand came up and hit him on the back of his head, proving to be an effective means of silencing him. She decided she'd have to remember that as she walked into the back of the kitchen to give the cooks her table's order.

- - - - - - - - -

It was an hour past closing time and Squall was still in the office going over paperwork; he and Yuffie were the only two people left in the restaurant. Julian Rook, the assistant manager had been the last person to leave about half an hour ago and Squall hadn't seen anyone since then, not even Yuffie. But, he knew she was there somewhere. It was just a matter of finding her.

With a sigh, he shut the notebook he was looking over and rose from his seat to look for her. He assumed she would be more than glad to leave as she was unused to working the evening shift. He didn't have to look far. Stepping into the kitchen, he found her sitting on one of the counter tops and finishing off a piece of garlic toast she had apparently heated up in the oven.

"Yuffie, get off the counter," Squall muttered in exasperation, placing a hand on his forehead and gently rubbing it. "You know I don't–."

"–Like me to sit on your clean counters," Yuffie interrupted and finished for him as she slid off the counter and to her feet. "Yes, I know that. _But_, whoever gets here first tomorrow morning is going to wash the counter off _anyways_ so why does it matter if I sit on it?" She popped the last bite of her toast into her mouth and smiled sweetly at him.

Squall had no answer for her, simply shaking his head instead and choosing to ignore her question. "You ready to go?" he asked as he pulled on his jacket and turned the light to his office off.

"Gawd, yes," Yuffie sighed, grabbing her jacket off the counter she had laid it on when she _thought_ they were going to leave half an hour ago. "You have _no idea_ what I put up with today."

"Diners being picky?" Squall inquired distractedly as he walked through the restaurant, making sure all the lights were off and the doors all locked; Yuffie followed closely behind him.

"No, nosy friends," she muttered, nearly bumping into him as he stopped walking to pick a piece of trash off a table. But, at her statement, he turned around to look at her with raised eyebrows, silently asking her to elaborate. "Sora and Riku saw us in the parking lot this morning and told Kairi... they've been bugging me all day."

Squall covered his face with his hand, sighing into it before a small smile came across his face. "Sora was trying to use it to his advantage today until I threatened to demote him," he said, a slow laugh starting to make its way through his chest. "I don't even know what I could demote him to."

A giggle broke free from Yuffie as she put her arms through the sleeves of her jacket; she had simply been carrying it over her arm as they traipsed through the abandoned restaurant. "I don't either... _is_ there anything lower?"

"Not that I know of, but it was enough to scare him," Squall admitted as he pulled on the entrance to be certain it was locked; it was. He turned back and faced Yuffie once more, intending on turning her around and guiding her through the back of the kitchen. But, in the dim lights of the dining room, her skin seemed to almost glow and her eyes darken. He couldn't help himself as he pulled her closer and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, eliciting a soft sigh from her as he pulled away.

Having closed her eyes when she saw his lips descending upon hers, Yuffie stood there for a moment with her eyes still shut and her face slightly upturned, as though waiting for more. A slow smile crept on her face and she finally opened her eyes to stare at the man in front of her. But, then she lightly slapped his chest with her hand. "You said no PDA at the restaurant, you know," she chided as she turned around and headed across the dining room.

"I don't see anyone else here so, therefore, it's _not_ PDA since we're missing the public part of 'public display of affection,'" he retorted playfully as he placed his hand on her lower back and guided her into the kitchen.

"Excuses, excuses," Yuffie muttered, rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she walked around the kitchen counters. "You just wanted to wait until everyone was gone so you could have your way with me." As soon as she said that, she slapped her hand over her mouth and began to blush furiously. "I didn't just say that out loud, did I?"

"Yes, you did," Squall stated matter of factly, putting his hands on her waist to pick her up and set her on his _clean_ counter so they would be eye level. Or, closer to eye level anyway. "But, what did I tell you that first day at my apartment?" He leaned his forehead against hers, gazing unblinkingly into her eyes.

Sighing, Yuffie dropped her gaze from his eyes and looked down at her hands instead. "Squall, I didn't really mean what I said. I was just joking. You know, funny ha ha?" she said quietly, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her jacket.

"Yuffie, I am _not_ going to have my way with you, even though..." he trailed off, not finishing the thought in his head, that he _did_ want her. Instead, he closed the short distance between them and kissed her once more lightly on the lips before helping her off the counter.

Yuffie walked to the back door, zipping up her jacket and leaning against the doorframe as she watched Squall turn off the last lights in the restaurant. She wasn't sure if she should be flattered or insulted that he didn't want his way with her, but she decided she would worry about it later. Right now, it was enough just sharing kisses and embraces with him.

Satisfied that his restaurant was secure for the night, Squall turned off the last light and followed Yuffie out the door, locking it behind him. As soon as that was done and he had turned around to head towards his car, which was parked at the back of the parking lot, Yuffie had weaseled her way beneath his arm and was leaning against him. "Cold," she muttered when he looked down at her questioningly. She smiled when his arm tightened around her.

At the car, Squall unlocked the passenger door first for Yuffie before circling around to his own. And, once _inside_ the car, he decided that it might have been a good idea to have come out ten or fifteen minutes earlier just to let the car warm up first as it was freezing inside it. He honestly believed it was colder inside the car than it was outside. "I can't turn the heat on yet," he explained to Yuffie before she could question him. "It would just blow out cold air."

Teeth beginning to chatter, Yuffie nodded and snuggled down deeper into her jacket. She came to the conclusion then that she might need to buy a heavier coat with her next paycheck. Of course, thinking back on it, just last winter she had survived the cold with sweatshirts and blankets. Actually living in a home and not off the streets was seeming to have a backwards effect on her, making her more susceptible to the cold than before because she was getting used to being warm most of the time. Not that she was complaining; she was happy in Squall's apartment and she didn't plan on returning to the streets anytime soon.

Lost in her thoughts and Squall being equally silent on his side of the car, Yuffie didn't realize until they pulled into the parking garage just how close they were to home. Home. The word held a lot of meaning for Yuffie. Since her mother died, she didn't have a true home, nowhere that she actually belonged. But, here, she felt she belonged, even though she had only been there for a little less than two months. She could call this place _home_ and not feel out of place.

"You still awake over there?" Squall asked suddenly, the silence in the car having finally got to him. Without Yuffie's normally endless chatter, it just felt... _strange_, to say the least. At one time, her chatter would have bothered him. But, now, it just seemed normal, like it was supposed to be there.

Smiling, Yuffie turned to him. "Yeah, I'm still awake. I was just... thinking," she told him, wondering if she should tell him her thoughts or if they would only confuse him. He was a man who had _always _had a home. Surely her ramblings about _home_ and the meanings thereof would confound him. "I'm just glad to finally be home."

"Me, too," Squall replied as he parked the car. "It seemed like such a long day, didn't it?" He didn't realize he was only digging into the surface of her meaning with her statement. But, that was okay. He would understand it someday.

"Yeah... it was a long day," Yuffie answered after a few moments contemplation, leaning against him once more as they made their way across the parking garage and towards _home._

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, the ending of this chapter was COMPLETELY different than what I had planned in my head. I mean, the whole "home" issue just came outta nowhere as I was writing. I was going to do something else, but now I'll save that something else as the beginning of my next chapter. Secondly, I think this chapter is a little shorter than what I've been writing lately, but I like where it ended and I think adding anything past that would deter from it. Thirdly, I AM SO SORRY for taking so freakin' long to update. I don't know what's wrong with me. Hopefully, I'll get out of this funk that I've fallen into and write more regularly. _

_Anyways, please review for me. I know some parts of this chapter, like the first half or so, are kinda crappy, but bear with me. I'm trying to get back into the writing habit and I'll probably rewrite this chapter someday. Don't know when, but someday I will._


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